How to Play Chromatic Harmonica Instantly: The Book 2

By Marcos Habif

NEW EDITION! THE BOOK 2 CHROMATIC HARMONICA Step-By-Step EZ Lessons EZ Songs Lessons include: Slide Button Major Scales Sharps & Flats Learn To Jam The Blues You Don't Have To Read Music! Learn where all the easy BLUES jams are and jam BLUES instantly.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Dec 6, 2011
• ISBN: 9781483570921

Book preview

This book is designed so that even the absolute beginner—someone who has never played a musical instrument in his or her life—can actually learn to play the chromatic harmonica instantly. Age is no barrier, either. Even the very young quickly pick up the harmonica, arguably one of the easiest serious musical instruments in the world to learn and certainly the least expensive to buy and maintain.

For now, however, you want a way to get started and to feel a sense of accomplishment immediately, and I have created a way for you to do just that. It's done with simple, easy-to-do steps that will lead you so gradually to the more involved techniques that you will be amazed how easily you find yourself playing and then eventually tackling the more challenging levels.

Once you have learned the basics covered in the first section of this book, you will have the skills needed to play literally thousands of songs. After a while, you won't even need this book, and you won't need me to help you. You'll be off and running, making up your own tunes and having a great time. So, let's get on with it!

BACKGROUND

Before we get started, let's talk about what the chromatic harmonica is and how it relates to other harmonicas. Harmonicas are really very simple wind instruments. They may take many shapes and forms. Some are small, some larger, and some have more capabilities than others; however, they are all built from the same basic design. The chromatic harmonica falls into the family that is most widely used and is based on a 4-hole pattern.

The simplest version of this type of harmonica is the Little Lady, a 4-hole harmonica manufactured by Hohner. As with most harmonicas, each hole plays two notes: a BLOW note and a DRAW note. So there are 8 notes in all—an octave: C, D, E, F, G, A, B, and then back to C. This is called the C-Major scale.

The next size up from the Little Lady is the very popular Marine Band, a 10-hole harmonica also made by Hohner. This is the harmonica with which most people are familiar. The same C-Major scale that is found on holes 1-4 of the Little Lady is found on holes 4-7 of the Marine Band harmonica.

The Marine Band 10-hole harmonica is capable of playing but one major scale, so you need two different harmonicas to play all the scales. And you need several, each in a different key, to play in a variety of keys. Harmonica pros often carry a harmonica belt with them like the one pictured here. This lets them pick a harmonica to match any key a musician chooses.

The chromatic harmonica, on the other hand, is capable of playing all 12 scales and includes all the notes in our musical system. When you change keys, you don't need to change instruments. The chromatic harmonica is