Performance Tip: One Hole Away

At my 1998 Harmonica Masterclass Workshop, Charlie Musselwhite was fielding questions from students and just answered a question about playing on the high end of the harmonica. The next student asked, "But what happens if you play a wrong note?" Charlie said, "Well, I'm only one hole away from the right one." Pretty simple, but generally a true statement. Most the time we either under or overshot the hole we were intending to play, or if we truly played a stinker of a note, that means we're really close to the right one (the closer we are to the intended note, the worse the dissonance will be with the band). Playing the next note up or down in the scale of the harmonica will bring you to the correct note in most cases.