Is harmonica the hardest instrument to learn how to play well?
I started playing music learning on the recorder and the clarinet. From there I progressed to the saxophone and played it for many years. I have also tried playing other woodwind instruments. From my experience playing playing in orchestras, bands, and playing with friends I have seen how other instruments are played. My son plays violin and have experienced his learning process. When I compare all of this to my experience learning the harmonica I found the harmonica to be the hardest instrument to learn how to play well. Note you are blind and have to rely on muscle memory to find the holes. Also with the small holes you have to rely on precision lip pursing and/or tongue blocking to get good single note tones as well as chords and double stops. Bending is a complex technique and takes a long time to master. In addition look at the numerous techniques to learn (i.e. shakes, flutters, tongue slaps, glissandos, ect.. to name a few). I don't think people always appreciate this instrument and what it takes to play it. Does anybody agree that this is the hardest instrument to learn or is there another out there? Just interested in other people's thoughts.
Thanks
Brian
Francis:
Thanks for your insight. It certainly helps having an understanding about other instruments, how they are played and the challenges. This can be important when playing in a band. Then I can empathize more with the other players if they struggle with a song technique and we can work through it together. Your experience on the guitar is useful. This prompts me to have more discussion with the blues guitar guy I play with.
Thanks
Brian
For me the harmonica was the one that attracted me the most, so that made it not so hard. I *wanted* to play it in a way that I didn't feel about anything else.
Also, I was lucky that getting single notes was a lot easier than, say, playing barre chords on a guitar, which I still can't do well after way too many years.
I always had a strong mental map of where the notes are, so the blind factor didn't bother me. It was only when I compared my harmonica experience with the experience (mine and others') of playing instruments like guitar and piano - where you can see where the notes are, and can also see your hands finding the notes - that i t occurred to me that the harmonica threw a difficulty at learners.
Some of the perceived difficulty of the harmonica is that people think it's easy and there's not much too it. People will sometimes ask quizzically - "You wrote a 385-page book on harmonica -there's that much to say about it?" So if someone with that idea of the harmonica picks it up and starts to learn it, they're going to feel a little overwhelmed. It's a reality-in-proportion-to-perception thing.
Winslow
When I first started learning the harmonica back in 04 I truly underestimated it. Once I figured out how to play just simple tunes I was content with that for well over a year. It wasn't until several years later that I discovered what is needed to play the blues and all the available techniques as well as the months spent trying to bend. Certainly gained a new appreciation.
Brian
Curtis -
Your experience is not unusual.
Some folks are discouraged when they find out that there's way more to this little beast than they imagined.
Others are delighted to find out that there's more depth and potential to it. Sounds like you're part of this fortunate group.
Everyone is different. You have found the harmonica the most difficult instrument to master, in your experience. I'm still trying to learn it well and it is definitely a great challenge to play cleanly, with feel, etc. My first instrument is guitar which I've been playing for 40 years and there's still a boatload of things I don't know. Musical instruments are like onions; the more you learn the more layers there are to learn. However, I can say that if you practice hard you'll be able to make sounds that actually sound like music more quickly on a harmonica than you would be able to with a guitar. But that in no way is saying its easy. That's my 2 cents