Beginner Harmonica Courses

mo6020

Afternoon all - I realise this is probably a fairly niche request, but does anyone have any recommendations for online beginners harmonica courses? 

DuploLicks

Hard to go past Tomlin Leckie I reckon. It’s on my very long to-do list 

https://www.tomlinharmonicaschool.com/

https://www.youtube.com/@TomlinHarmonica

EricTheWeary

Lee Sankey has a lot of detailed tutorial stuff up on YouTube. One of the best harmonica players in the UK. 

mo6020

Awesome, thanks chaps - I'll check both of them out. 

fastonebaz

I just bought a blues harmonica. 

mo6020

fastonebaz said:

I just bought a blues harmonica. 

I just got a Marine Band 1896 in C (and a couple of other keys). What did you get? 

stimpsonslostson

DuploLicks said:

Hard to go past Tomlin Leckie I reckon. It’s on my very long to-do list 

https://www.tomlinharmonicaschool.com/

https://www.youtube.com/@TomlinHarmonica

Tomlin is great. I had in person lessons from him a few years ago- he lives not far from me. 
Other good resources are Adam Gussow's youtube channel (Tomlin used this to supplement his teaching before creating his own content). 
There's a good "introduction to blues harmonica" course on Truefire too. 

The things I found most useful were getting the hang of the second position blues scale and then improvising over jamtracks on youtube in whatever key I was playing in. 

I've not played harmonica in a while- it's quite loud and I live in a flat & have young kids, but the portability of the instrument is great & I love the sound it makes when played well. 

OilCityPickups

I've played blues harmonica for many years.
It all started when I was playing guitar in a band called the Jukes in the late 80s with a frontman/Harmonica Player called Pete Hogman: he was a member of the beat group Jimmy Powell & the Five Dimensions in the 60s and recorded with Chuck Berry on the "In London" session 1965. His biggest claim to fame was that he was the harmonica player on Millie's  hit My Boy Lollipop in 1964, though for many years it was thought to be rock star Rod Stewart, who was also briefly with Jimmy Powell.
Anyway, Pete was a master of Chicago 'electric' harmonica with a Green Bullet mic and an early Mesa Boogie combo for amplification. And playing behind him I listened hard ... then after I left the Jukes and moved to London I literally bought a half dozen of the important key harmonicas and with a couple of weeks woodshedding, started sitting in with local bands and at jam sessions.  That is the way to learn, playing with other musicians. 
Biggest tip ... know when to shut up and not overplay: rhythm harmonica is not really a thing!  

mo6020

OilCityPickups said:

Biggest tip ... know when to shut up and not overplay: rhythm harmonica is not really a thing!  

This is good advice. Thanks. 

OilCityPickups

mo6020 said:

OilCityPickups said:

Biggest tip ... know when to shut up and not overplay: rhythm harmonica is not really a thing!  

This is good advice. Thanks. 

Listen to sax players and trumpeters, that's what the harp was originally a cheap substitute for - and collect microphones. The Green Bullet  doesn't have a particularly good 'capsule' and you can find better ones from the US ... look up harp mics (It's an art in itself). 

paulnb57

OilCityPickups said:

I've played blues harmonica for many years.
It all started when I was playing guitar in a band called the Jukes in the late 80s with a frontman/Harmonica Player called Pete Hogman: he was a member of the beat group Jimmy Powell & the Five Dimensions in the 60s and recorded with Chuck Berry on the "In London" session 1965. His biggest claim to fame was that he was the harmonica player on Millie's  hit My Boy Lollipop in 1964, though for many years it was thought to be rock star Rod Stewart, who was also briefly with Jimmy Powell.
Anyway, Pete was a master of Chicago 'electric' harmonica with a Green Bullet mic and an early Mesa Boogie combo for amplification. And playing behind him I listened hard ... then after I left the Jukes and moved to London I literally bought a half dozen of the important key harmonicas and with a couple of weeks woodshedding, started sitting in with local bands and at jam sessions.  That is the way to learn, playing with other musicians. 
Biggest tip ... know when to shut up and not overplay: rhythm harmonica is not really a thing!  

Cripes small world, I worked with and became friendly with Pete Hogman when he worked as a Craft Instructor at Parkhurst Prison in the late 80’s. A proper gent and Master of the Blues Harp. lost touch when we moved to Cambs, sadly be died a while back…..often saw Hoggie and the Jukes/Hoggie and the Sharptones around the IOW, his lovely wife Jilly singing…

OilCityPickups

paulnb57 said:

OilCityPickups said:

I've played blues harmonica for many years.
It all started when I was playing guitar in a band called the Jukes in the late 80s with a frontman/Harmonica Player called Pete Hogman: he was a member of the beat group Jimmy Powell & the Five Dimensions in the 60s and recorded with Chuck Berry on the "In London" session 1965. His biggest claim to fame was that he was the harmonica player on Millie's  hit My Boy Lollipop in 1964, though for many years it was thought to be rock star Rod Stewart, who was also briefly with Jimmy Powell.
Anyway, Pete was a master of Chicago 'electric' harmonica with a Green Bullet mic and an early Mesa Boogie combo for amplification. And playing behind him I listened hard ... then after I left the Jukes and moved to London I literally bought a half dozen of the important key harmonicas and with a couple of weeks woodshedding, started sitting in with local bands and at jam sessions.  That is the way to learn, playing with other musicians. 
Biggest tip ... know when to shut up and not overplay: rhythm harmonica is not really a thing!  

Cripes small world, I worked with and became friendly with Pete Hogman when he worked as a Craft Instructor at Parkhurst Prison in the late 80’s. A proper gent and Master of the Blues Harp. lost touch when we moved to Cambs, sadly be died a while back…..often saw Hoggie and the Jukes/Hoggie and the Sharptones around the IOW, his lovely wife Jilly singing…

Yay ... I used to alternate with Dick Tailor 

On guitar ... when he was off with the Pretty Things I often took over. 
Jill was such a sweetie ... and all of us who worked with Hoggie were a bit in love with her. Yep, Hoggie left us in 2017 after long battles with a dodgy ticker ... Pete taught me how to be a professional musician ,,, simple as that. 

John 'Pete' Hogman in his younger days