Harmonica For Dummies

Title Page
Copyright Page
Introduction
	About This Book
	Foolish Assumptions
	Icons Used in This Book
	Beyond the Book
	Where to Go from Here
Part 1 Getting Started with Harmonica
	Chapter 1 What Is This Thing Called Harp?
		Considering the Harmonica’s Coolness
		Becoming the Next Harmonica Idol: What It Takes to Play
			A harmonica
			A little music know-how
			Your body
			Regular practice — and unstructured fun!
		Taking Your Talent to the Next Level
		Hanging Out in the Harmonica Village
			Sharing your music with others locally
			Visiting the repair shop and the accessory store
	Chapter 2 Becoming a Harmonica Owner
		Shopping for Your First Harmonica
			Understanding the construction of the ten-hole diatonic
			Tuning in to the key of the harp
			Starting out with a harp in the key of C
			Pricing a harmonica
			Determining where to buy a harp
		Safe and Sound: Caring for Your Harp
		Collecting Additional Diatonic Harps
			Purchasing popular keys
			Expanding your range with harps in high and low keys
		Adding Variety to Your Harmonica Kit
			Chromatic harps
			Tremolo and octave harmonicas
		Making Your Harps Portable with Carrying Cases
		Getting to Know You: Discovering How a Harmonica Works
			Making a five-layer tin sandwich
			Taking a closer look at the reeds that make the sound
			Locating different notes
	Chapter 3 Making Your First Harmonica Sounds
		Preparing to Play the Harmonica
			Picking up the harp
			Putting the harp in your mouth
			Breathing through the harp
			Moving through the holes
		Getting Acquainted with Some Musical Concepts
			Zeroing in on harmonica tab
			Counting with musical time
			Locking in with the beat
			Using beats as building blocks
		Developing Your Sound
			Expanding and sustaining your breathing
				Yawning big
				Closing your nose with the balloon exercise
				Breathing gently with the warm hand exercise
				Deepening your breathing
				Breathing forcefully with the dastardly laugh
			Cupping the harp in your hands
			Nestling the harmonica in your mouth
			Playing some cool rhythms
				Playing a blues with simple chord rhythms
				Using your hands to create vowel sounds
				Playing a train imitation
	Chapter 4 Relating to Notes, Scales, and Chords
		Getting in Tune with the Singable Notes
			Understanding the curious phenomenon of octaves
			Naming the notes and creating a scale
			Using octaves to name all the notes
			Altering pitches with sharps and flats
			Measuring small distances with semitones and whole tones
		Sizing Up Intervals
			Counting out the size of an interval
			Determining the quality of an interval
		Finding the Key of a Song
		Stepping Through Scales
			Diatonic and chromatic scales
			Major and minor scales
			Modal scales
			Altering a scale with sharps and flats
		The Building Blocks of Chords
			Four basic types of chords
			Adding notes to basic triads
			Chord progressions
		Writing Notes Down
			Placing notes on a staff
			Writing sharps and flats on the staff
			Unlocking key signatures
			Finding harmonica notes on the staff
Part 2 Starting to Make Some Music
	Chapter 5 I Hear a Melody: Playing Single Notes
		Shaping Your Mouth to Single Out a Note
			Forming the pucker embouchure
			Producing a tongue-block embouchure
		The Elements of Motion: Moving from One Note to the Next
			Exploring breath changes
			Finding your way with hole changes
			Alternating breath changes and hole changes
			Coordinating simultaneous hole changes and breath changes
		Exploring the Three Registers of the Harmonica
		Playing Familiar Tunes in the Middle Register
			“Good Night, Ladies”
			“Michael, Row the Boat Ashore”
			“Mary Had a Little Lamb”
			“Amazing Grace”
		Making Your First Multi-Hole Leaps
			“Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”
			“Frère Jacques”
			“On Top of Old Smokey”
		Shifting up from the Middle
			“Bunessan” (“Morning Has Broken”)
			“Joy to the World”
		Floating in the High Register
			“Aura Lea” (“Love Me Tender”)
			“She’ll Be Comin’ ’Round the Mountain”
			“Silent Night”
	Chapter 6 Shaping Your Sound
		Enlarging Your Sound with Projection
			Using your air column
			Enriching your sound with the smooth swimming exercise
			Increasing airflow through the reeds
			Varying your volume with dynamics
			Projecting with your hands
		Starting and Ending Notes with Articulation
			Starting notes with your tongue
			Using your throat to articulate notes
			Initiating a note with your diaphragm
		Shaping the Tone Color of Your Notes
			Changing vowel sounds with your tongue
			Brightening and darkening your sound using your hands
			Slowly changing the sound
			Combining hand and tongue vowels
		Pulsating Your Notes with Vibrato
			Diaphragm vibrato
			Throat vibrato
			Tongue vibrato
			Hand vibrato
			Synchronizing and layering pulsation
	Chapter 7 Enhancing Your Sound with Your Tongue on the Harp
		Using Your Tongue to Combine Chords and Melodies
			Knowing the chords on your harp
			Accompanying melodies with chords
			Chasing the beat with a chord
		Reinforcing Melody Notes with Your Tongue
			Applying the tongue slap
			Popping chords with pull-offs
		Creating Chord Textures with Your Tongue
			Alternating tongue placements to produce the chord rake
			Lifting and replacing your tongue to play a chord hammer
			Rapidly alternating widely spaced notes with the shimmer
		Combining Widely Spaced Notes with Splits
			Sticking with a locked split
			Inching along with variable splits
		Playing Quick and Wide Leaps with Corner Switching
	Chapter 8 Bending Notes
		Knowing the What and the Why of Bending
			What is bending?
			Why bend notes?
		Getting Started with Bending Notes Down
			Exploring the roof of your mouth
			Making some helpful noises
			Creating your bend activator with the K-spot
			Playing your first bend
			If at first you don’t succeed: Practicing persistence
		Deepening Your Skills at Bending Notes Down
			Surveying the bendable notes
			Working through the four stages of bending control
			Bending draw notes down in the middle register
			Bending draw notes down in the heart of the harp — the low register
			Bending blow notes down in the high register
		Bending on Different Types of Harmonicas
			Chromatic harps
			Double reed harps
	Chapter 9 Positions: Playing One Harp in Many Keys
		Understanding How Positions Help Your Playing
		Figuring Out a Position
		Relating Positions, Modes, and Avoid Notes
		Rocking with Six Popular Positions
			First position (C on a C-harp)
			Second position (G on a C-harp)
			Third position (D on a C-harp)
			Fourth position (A on a C-harp)
			Fifth position (E on a C-harp)
			Twelfth position (F on a C-harp)
Part 3 Growing Beyond the Basics
	Chapter 10 Fancy Playing: Developing Flair and Speed
		Mastering Melody from the Ground Up
			Seeing the scale
			Recognizing scale patterns
			Anchoring melodies on chord notes
			Simplifying the scale to five notes
		Adding Ornaments to the Melody
			Shakes
			Rips, boings, and fall-offs
			Grace notes
		Developing Your Speed
			Start slow and know each individual move
			Learn in small chunks
			Speed it up — slowly
			Think and play in larger units
	Chapter 11 Mastering New Songs
		Understanding How Songs Work
			The container: Structuring time
			The shifting backdrop: Chord changes
			The foreground: Melody
		Choosing the Right Harp
			What are the notes in the scale?
			What are the notes in the chords?
		Making It Up versus Playing It Straight
			Learning melodies . . .
			Jamming on a tune
		Trial and Error: Playing Along with Random Music
	Chapter 12 Behind the Hidden Treasure: Bending Notes Up
		Considering the Coolness of Overbends
			Playing more licks, riffs, and scales
			Playing in more keys
		Exploring the Things to Know Before You Start
			How to choose a suitable harmonica
			Determining which notes overblow and overdraw
			Preparing your mind, body, and ears
		Getting Your First Overblows
			The push-through approach
			The springboard approach
		Achieving More Overblows
		Getting Your First Overdraws
		Raising the Pitch of an Overbend
			Playing overbends in tune
			Bending overbends up
		Blending Overbends into Your Playing
			Strengthening your overbend approaches
			Smoothing your follow-ons
Part 4 Developing Your Style
	Chapter 13 Rockin’ and Bluesin’
		Getting Hip to the Blues/Rock Approach
		The Three Basic Chords of Rock-and-Roll, Blues, and Nearly Everything
		The Three Popular Harmonica Positions
			Relating positions to chords and scales
			Second position and the three basic chords
			First position
			Third position
		Playing Sweet Melodies in First Position
			“Kickin’ Along”
			“Youngish Minor”
			“Morning Boots”
		The 12 Bars of Blues
			Making a statement: Tell it, brother!
			Fitting the notes to the chords
		Exploring 12-Bar Blues with Second Position
			“Ridin’ the Changes”
			Driving the rhythm with “Lucky Chuck”
			“Buster’s Boogie”
		Adding Minor Chords to a Progression: “Smoldering Embers”
		Adding the Flat III and Flat VII Chords: “John and John”
		Burning in Third Position: “Tom Tom”
	Chapter 14 Expressing Yourself with Some Folk and Gospel Melodies
		Sampling Some First-Position Songs
			“Buffalo Gals”
			“Wildwood Flower”
			“La Cucaracha”
		Getting Acquainted with a Few Second-Position Songs
			“Since I Laid My Burden Down”
			“Cluck Old Hen”
			“Aura Lea” in second position
			“This Train (Is Bound for Glory)”
		Inhaling Some Third-Position Melodies
			“Little Brown Island in the Sea”
			“She’s Like the Swallow”
		Exploring Folk Songs in Twelfth, Fourth, and Fifth Positions
			“À la claire fontaine” in twelfth position
			“The Huron Carol” in fourth position
			“Poor Wayfaring Stranger” in fifth position
	Chapter 15 Fiddlin’ the Night Away with Traditional Dance Tunes
		Choosing Harps for Playing Folk and Celtic Music
			The tremolo harmonica
			The chromatic harmonica
		Playing Fast Fiddle Tunes
		Trying Out Some First-Position Tunes
			“Jerry the Rigger”
			“Soldier’s Joy”
			“The Stool of Repentance”
		Energizing Some Tunes in Second Position
			“Over the Waterfall”
			“Angeline the Baker”
			“Bat Wing Leather”
		Feeling the Excitement of Third-Position Tunes
			“Dorian Jig”
			“The Dire Clog”
Part 5 Taking It to the World
	Chapter 16 Putting It All Together — Your Tunes, Your Band, Your Listeners
		Putting Your Tunes Together
			Selecting tunes for the harmonica
			Making it your own: Arranging a tune
			Adding vocals to your tunes
		Making Music with Others
			Setting some ground rules when you play with others
			Knowing when to lay out
			Playing in a duo
			Jamming with a band
		Strutting Your Stuff Onstage
			Looking good, feeling good
			Preparing for an onstage performance
			Overcoming stage fright
			Recovering from mistakes
			Taking center stage: Soloing
	Chapter 17 Amplifying Your Sound
		Getting Acquainted with Amplification Basics
		Playing through a Microphone for the First Time
			Playing into a microphone on a stand
			Playing with a microphone cupped in your hands
			Hearing yourself through the chaos
			Avoiding the dreaded howl of feedback
		Taking Amplification to the Next Level: Clean and Distorted Amplified Sound
			Getting better acquainted with microphones
			Altering a harp’s sound with effects
			Cranking it up with amplifiers, preamps, and speakers
		Connecting Mics, Amplifiers, and Effects Units
	Chapter 18 Improving Your Harmonica with Repairs and Upgrades
		Gathering the Tools You Need
		Following Good Repair Practices
		Making Three Simple Improvements
			Disassembling and reassembling a harp
			Flexing the reeds
			Smoothing sharp edges and corners
		Diagnosing and Fixing Problems
			Taking a harp apart and putting it back together
			Clearing obstructions from your harp
			Fixing reeds that are misaligned
			Narrowing reed slots
			Setting reed action
			Tuning your harmonica
Part 6 The Part of Tens
	Chapter 19 Ten (Or More) Ways to Connect in the Harmonica World
		Take Lessons from a Pro
		Enjoy Harmonica Performances
		Seek Out Musical Events That Don’t Focus on Harmonica
		Let Loose at Jam Sessions and Open Mic Nights
		Contribute to Harmonica Discussion Groups Online
		Surf Informational Websites
		Use Paid Content Learning Sites
		Join a Harmonica Club
		Share Your Enthusiasm at Harmonica Festivals
		Sign Up for a Harmonica Seminar
		Advertise
	Chapter 20 Way More Than Ten Harmonica Albums You Should Hear
		Blues
		Rock
		Bluegrass/Old-Timey
		Celtic
		Country
		Gospel
		Jazz
Part 7 Appendixes
	Appendix A Tuning Layouts for All Keys
	Appendix B Audio Tracks and Video Clips
		The Audio Tracks
		The Video Clips
		Customer Care
Index
EULA