I bought E marineband harmonica and i am a complete beginer did i make a mistake?
Can i practice and learn blues on E harmonica?
Dear Mikica:
Welcome to the wonderful world of blues harmonica. When Winslow checks in he will be able to give you a really useful and concise answer. But for now:
If you plan to go through the lessons on this website (which I hope you do, as David is a great teacher), unless you have a lot of musical experience with another instrument or instruments, understand music theory, can read musical notation, and can transpose keys based on experience playing other instruments with bands and vocalists, you are going to run into real difficulty if your only harmonica is an E-major diatonic. Best to start with a C (for the introductory lesson) or an A (most used for the first levels of Levels of Achievement.) Historically, the E harmonica has not been used that much by blues musicians. As you progress, you'll learn from a musical perspective why that is. But hang on to that E anyway, as it may come in handy some day for a certain song. In the meantime, the great thing about harmonicas is that you can buy a pretty good one for not too much money. And a lot less money than a quality guitar, bass, clarinet, etc. But just because all you currently have is an E, don't be shy about watching David's lessons and getting a good idea about how it all works.
Best of luck to you.
Hi, Mikica, welcome to the world of harmonicas. At bluesharmonica.com David recommends starting with the key of A. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t get started with the harmonica you have. The nice thing about diatonic harmonicas are they all have the same blow/draw pattern, so if you have a different key harmonica you still can learn all the techniques taught here. The only difference is you will be out of key with the band when learning study songs. When watching David’s videos if you try to play along your pitch will be different than his, but you will still learn what he is teaching. My recommendation would be to look at the level 1 lessons and try them with the harmonica you have. Once you decide this is what you want to do then think about getting an A harmonica. Also, if you post any questions in the Ask Instructor forum, make sure you let David know which key harmonica you are using, so he knows what pitch you are trying to bend or having problems with.
The key of E is an odd ball to start with, but it doesn’t mean you can’t play it. Any time you are playing without a band then it won’t matter which harmonica you use as long as it sounds good to you. Most other online harmonica schools start out with the key of C, so E is not going to match starting lessons no matter where you go. If you take harmonicas seriously then eventually you will need a collection of different keys, so don’t think you have wasted your money. Also the solo harmonica studies are taught using key of A harmonica, but I practice them using different keys, just to keep thing interesting.
There are facial muscles, breathing patterns, and lots of things to do with your tongue that will require you getting in shape and figuring out how to do them, so don’t wait for the correct harmonica, just get started with the one you have.
Brian in Tennessee
Other have already answered, but yes, use the A harmonica at first for LOA, and later other keys of harmonica as indicated.
Because a lot of blues is in E, it's a common first move to buy an E harmonica - makes sense, right? But in the wonderful world of blues, most of the time you use a harmonica in a different key, which helps in getting the classic blues sound. If you learn blues on the E harp, it will put you in the key of B, which won't match the key of most of what's in LOA.
When the song key and the harmonica key are the same, that's known as first postiion. While some blues in played in first position, it's far more common for the harmonica to be in a key that's the fourth step up (or the fifh step down - same thing) from the ley of the song:
E-F-G-A = 1-2-3-4 (or E-D-C-B-A = 5-4-3-2-1)
So fir blues in E, you'd use an A harmonica.
This is known as second position. It gives you the notes of the home chord (E on an A harmonica) as draw notes, which all bend down - and bending is a classic blues sound - and makes one note in the scale also bluesier, the one found in Draw 5 when you play in second position.
So, sorry about the E harp. It may end up being useful, as every once in awhile a song blues up in the key of B, and an E harp will make it possible to play that E harp in second position.
Hello all, I'm Stacy and I'm a complete n00bie to the fascinating world of harmonica. After doing a bunch of research, I boght my first harp which is the Hohner Special 20 Progressive Harmonica, Key of C Major, 10 holes, diatonic. Even though this model kept coming up as the perfect harmonica for beginners, I'm a little concerned that I might have purchased the wrong one. On the box it clearly says that this model is not suited for playing the blues, my main goal!
However, I know that I have many tutorials to do and many many practice sessions, so perhaps the Hohner Special 20 Progressive Harmonica, Key of C Major, is suited to a beginner? Then after one acquires basic skills they move on to a blues harmonica?
I welcome everyone's advice on this matter and I'm very grateul for your guidance :) Stacy
stacyb139: Welcome! Winslow can explain all of this a whole lot better than I can, but: The Special 20 is a good quality harmonica, and a good value. While some pros have more expensive harps, there are also long-tme blues performers who love the Special 20. (And re the suitable types of music set out on harmonica packaging, that stuff is written by marketing folks who usually have no idea what they're talking about, and say on the box things like that this harp is best for pop, this one for blues, this other one for Transyvanian folk tunes, etc., in hopes that they can get you to buy three harmonicas when one will do. Any good quality 10-hole diatonic harmonica will work for blues, and while there may be subtle differences between various makes and models, you won't begin to hear the difference yourself until you've been playing for a while, and most listeners in an audience won't ever be able to make out the difference.) Take a look at the various quesitons asked of David in the "Ask Instructor David Barrett" Forum to learn why he has a beginner lesson set on this site that uses a C harmonica, but why after you've started with that (and he counsels that you can spend weeks, and even months, on that initial C lesson), his next lessons use an A harmonica, and as they become more advanced, some other keys. The stores and manufacturers produce and sell more C harmonicas probably for no other reason than that a major C scale on the piano uses only the white keys. But as you progress you'll learn that the keys of songs, the basic traits of various keys of harmonica, why some pros carry not only harmonicas in 12 different keys, but also different tunings, etc., is a pretty complicated mix of stuff. But not so complicated that you won't pretty quickly pick it up, so long as you just bite off a little at a time. And one of the great things about David's lesson system is that he sets up very manageable bites in just the right order, so that even someone completely new to playing a musical instrument can enjoy picking up a lot pretty quickly,
@ukulelebob65 Thank you so much for your speedy reply and for your invaluable advice! I'm extremely grateful that you took the time and effort to school this n00b! I'm glad that I can learn on the Hohnner Special 20. I was almost ready to buy another harp that they advertise on the box as a "blues" harmonica, but then they give you a choice of SIX different models. Mind blown!! 
Thank you again, I hope to be posting about my my progress shortly. I'm actually a guitar student and I've been heavy into both playing and music theory for the last 15 months. But I do aim to fit in the harmonica tutorials, and pray that I'm a better harmonica player than I am at guitar, lol.
Cheers for now :)
StacyB139
Don't worry if Hohner's silly table of which harp works for what doesn't indicate that the Special 20 is good for blues - it IS! (Just ask Sugar Blue.)
That table is laughable nonsense and often derided in the harmonica community, but I guess Hohner figures it helps sales.They've been the market leader for over a century so they must be doing something right.
You WILL need a C harp along with the A harp that David uses for the beginning stages of LOA, so your money was in no way wasted.
Most of the traditional blues that everyone wants to emulate was played on the Hohner Marine Band or on models with the same guts but different covers.
Here's where you can answer a question for yourself by acquiring your next harmonica.
Your SP20 is what's known as a lipped harp. The reedplates are sunk into the comb (the middle part, which on that model is made of black plastic). The comb forms a mouthpiece so that your lips and tongue never touch the brass reedplates that are fastened to the top and bottom of the comb.
The Marine Band is known as a sandwich harp. If you cut a sandwich in half, you see all the layers - the bread, the mustard, the lettuce, and so on. The front edges of the brass reedplates are exposed to your lips and tongue. Some players prefer this as it brings the reed slightly closer to your breath, but others hate the taste and feel of the reedplate edges.
My suggestion: Buy a Marine Band or Marine Band Deluxe (held together with screws instead of nails and better sealed against breath moisture that can swell the wood).
Compare the feel of playing the Marine Band with the Special 20. At first the differences may seem really pronounced, although with experience the differences may fade into the background and the things in common may come to the fore. But you'll have a basis for deciding which type of construction you prefer.
By the way, here are a couple of classic Little Walter tracks played on a C harp:
Hate to See You Go: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pM2TaQYfQg
Off the Wall: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bnBhBkFq8I
Hi @ExpertWinslowYerxa and thank you for your speedy reply. I took your advice to heart and I've just purchased a Hohner Marine Band harp in the Key of A. Now I'll be able to do the first set of tutorials, which, as I understand, require harps in the keys of C Major and A.
I want to thank you for going to the time and trouble to give good council to a n00b like me!
Always grateful,
Stacyb39
Hello Mikica:
If you want to learn to play blues using the Levels of Achievement (LOA), you won't get to the key of G until Level IV.
While there is a section for beginners who only have the key of C, the first three Levels of LOA use the key of A.