BUYING THE BEST HARMONICA – A BLOG BY A HARMONICA TEACHER

What's new on harmonica learning

Hi everyone! My name is Steve and here is my blog on learning harmonica. Today I’ll share my opinions and suggestions, on which harmonica models are good enough to buy, with beginner players and how to keep it cost effective once you take the road of learning to play this instrument. Before I begin, I want to restate that you ain’t going to buy a $50,000 car, it’s just a nice and small musical instrument we’re talking about, so.. relax!!!

It’s better not to buy a low-priced instrument when you’ve just started practising; so don’t get any harp either that costs you less than $30. Why it’s significant? The reason is that the cheaper instruments tend to produce poor sound quality and also because more hard work is required on your part to play them; moreover, when you’re a newbie, the last thing you want is to resolve the conflict whether something is wrong with you or is it the instrument which is faulty?

Buy a harmonica by Hohner, Seydel or Suzuki and you won’t regret it. There are some other good models out there now, the important thing to remember is not to buy the cheapest model.

Another important aspect that I would like you to understand is that if you seek advise from one hundred people on which harmonica would be good for you to buy, you may get as many answers as there are number of persons, causing confusion and making your selection even more difficult. Suppose you’re thinking about buying a Hohner Special 20 and someone, who’s still struggling to perform bending on its hole 3, shares his/her own experience with you that would leave you perplexed whether to buy the same model or to search for another. In another scenerio, you might be looking for some information on another harmonica, and you’ll find someone’s feedback on it that the said model gave him problems such as air-tightness, etc, what will you do then? Trust someone who’s been playing harmonica for years and have taught many students: if you make up your mind on buying a mid-range harmonica of any one out of several brands I already listed, you’re good to go.

Don’t be afraid of making mistakes as what you’re about to invest your money in, is nothing more than a small object with price may be as low as $30. Remember! if you are at the starting point of learning to play, you should concentrate on studying it. You may need to buy more than one harmonica and it’s better that you buy them with different keys – yet another example of chief aspect for your consideration. Suppose, for an instance, you buy one Hohner Marine Band Crossover in A and another F Seydel 1847 classic: you notice that you can play better on the Hohner instead of the Seydel where you find yourself struggling to play it, and as a result, you’re convinced that Crossover should be preferred over Seydel. But are you sure that the harmonica model could be the problem? Have you ever thought that maybe a different approach is required to play F harmonica in contrast to an A harp? If not, you know it now! Each harmonica has is own temperament.

What I want to convey to you through this article is that; in the beginning you may find some harmonicas seemingly better than the others and you’ll also get yourself attached to some of the models only to find out later – with the gradual improvement of your ability to play – that you can play all of the models including even those that you didn’t like at first. It demands trust in yourself, focus on the study and not spending too much energy in trying to figure out which harp to buy.

Read the article about comparing four harmonica models here.

Read about which harmonica key to buy here.

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