Nivedan's Tips on Harmonica - the basics

Try to start from the basics.

Holding, playing and precautionary measures

1. Hold the harmonica from the left side, with the thumb below and the rest of the fingers above.

2. The right hand should be in the shape of C and should cover the opening in the back and closing the gap behind, so that the air does not escape so easily.

3. Do not blow it hard, you may end up damaging the reeds

4. Make the metal cover above and below the holes wet so that it will be easy to move it around

5. When you keep it inside the case, tap the holes upon your palm gently, so that the saliva/dust does not stay in it.

Practicing

1. Practice blowing/inhaling in one hole. Multiple notes should not come out. Remember that you have to play pieces. Blowing notes together will play chords. So one note at a time. It will take atleast 3 days to do that.

2. Secondly, be patient, do not overdo things on the first day. Play for a minute, take rest for a minute. Do this again and again and increase the time you play before resting. On the first day, I did it with over enthusiasm for five hours continuously and fainted. The next day, when I inhaled I felt as if someone had placed huge rocks on the chest. It requires some breathing exercise to play continuously.

3. Once you start playing in one hole at a time, try to do pitch bending. I mean, practice transition from one note to the other i.e inhale to exhale as well as one hole to the other, until you get it right without ending up in more than one hole at a time and until the transition becomes smooth.

4. Then start practising a piece in the default scale of your instrument (Without button press, it should be C) Practice it everyday and do not try different pieces. You should play that for four to six hours everyday. Musician's life's not so easy. I worked for 5 hours everyday without fail to qualify myself for a stage. Our guitarist Benin practiced from 3.00 to 3.00 (college hours- 08.30 - 01.10) to start as a novice all the way to play in a professional band in 2 years. If you see full time professionals you will go mad.

5. Once you can play the first tune without any blemishes including searching for note, playing wrong notes, loss of breath, etc, go for the next piece/song.

6. If you want to get a spot on a stage, 5 hours is not enough. For on-stage programmes, we forget brushing teeth to going to class, mess and even tea, atleast 20 days b4 the programme. We practice around 15-16 hrs. Singing on stage is easier. But you will initially go out of breath on stage even after rigorous practice. So breath management is very important, otherwise the fellow musicians will go past you while you gasp. You will need to plan when to draw air while playing without affecting the pieces.