Tip: practice in the bathroom
Here where I live there's a small sauna, about 1 by 3 meters, and I found out that it's a lot of fun practicing harmonica there because of the acoustic. Not only fun, but it's also helping me a lot! The harmonica sounds louder to the ears, so you can play lighter and hear the nuances of your technic, and there's a nice reverb effect.
Not everyone has a sauna, but I think a small bathroom would do the same trick. I know it sounds weird, to practice in the bathroom, but give it a try! The sauna is my favorite place to practice now
Eric: Cool article. Thanks! In the meantime, another benefit of practicing in the bathroom is looking at oneself in the mirror. Are your shoulders down and relaxed? Or are you trying to cram them into your ears? A few years ago I had a fun in-person lesson with Jon Gindick, who guided me into his bathroom and had me play while looking in the mirror, and then talked to me about relaxing. Funny, but with my shoulders back down in normal position, my tone improved 100%!
"When the Harmonicats' "Peg o' My Heart" was released in 1947, the harmonica instrumental would have been just another catchy tune on the radio were it not for the surreal, atmospheric reverberation that drenched it. Producer Bill Putnam's use of an echo chamber (specifically, a microphone and loudspeaker placed in the studio's bathroom) was probably the first artistic use of artificial reverb in music, and it lent an eerie dimension to the song."
https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/06/how-humans-con...