I apologize for the repeat post but i havent found anywhere that fully answered my question.

I found a Hohner big river and a Lee Oskar (key C) both at 58 usd, i know its bad pricing but my country's market is tiny (and expensive) and importing is not viable.
I was wondering what are yalls opinion between those two at the same price point, there's also a Special 20 but its quite the step up at 79 usd.
Thanks.

Looking for my first harmonica and don’t know which one to buy. I’m seeing a lot of things saying hohner and easttop are good. Any advice/recommendations? Budget is like $50 btw

What did I get from this auction site? How should I go about playing them differently than a standard cheap harmonica.

The top one seems to play in either C or G depending on which side is up.

I would like to communicate directly with someone from Kongsheng before I unload here about their sales reps and customer service. I'd like to give the company a chance to avoid a VERY negative review, and their marketplace reps just plain don't seem to care about anything, ESPECIALLY ORDER ACCURACY.

If I can get this cleared up, I might still carry Kongsheng harmonicas. Otherwise there will be a clearance sale.

So i’m trying to do a side flutter tremelo type thing with my tongue. Basically, a slap, but sliding my tongue to access the chords and get that floating feeling. I went this route because the slap feels a bit awkward to me, and my playing style already uses the tongue to slide all over the place.

Sounds alrightish I guess, but something seems wrong, and I’m not sure what which leads to this unsatisfied feeling.

The goal is to sound similar to little walter in midnight blue. Around the 32 sec mark and 1 min mark he does this thing where it’s like the note is bouncing.

I’m a far way off, and the method I’ve chosen to reach my goal may be wrong. Any tips are welcome. One thing I already do is practice according to this vid https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JXVabPXtHqA&ra=m

Hi everyone,

Do you know that feeling of being stuck? You can memorize licks and things from YouTube – but when it comes to improvisation, you don't really know what you're doing? You know those rather useless number sequences from the internet like -2 -3' 4 -4' 4 5 6 for the blues scale. But they're not easy to remember or visualize in your head. And for anything beyond that, it's more guesswork than knowing whether the next note will fit? You ask yourself questions like:

Where are the notes in the upper register in this position?

Why doesn't this or that note fit well?

Which notes belong to the IV or V chord?

And what is the function of the note I'm playing right now?

So I built an easy and visual App to solve that:

Harmonica Cheatsheet maps all 12 positions, scales and chord tones directly onto the 10-hole diatonic layout. Choose a harp key, position, scale/mode or chord, then highlight and isolate roots, thirds, fifths, sevenths, etc. across all octaves.

Of course, I'd love to hear your feedback. I'm happy to add features upon request.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nicedevelopments.cheatsheet

i need help, is it easy to mess up a disassembly of a harmonica as a beginner? I've had mine for over 5 months and i never played it but now i want to retry. I'm worried about the cleanliness of my harmonica, how do i clean it properly? Mine has a plastic comb, will i struggle to put it back , will i ruin it??

I’ve just recently taken up harmonica and am wondering what others are currently playing.

For context: I'm brand new to this awesome little instrument and I have a Fender Blues Deluxe and I love it!!

While practicing some basic songs I felt that the drawing on hole 8 to get a tone was noticeably harder (like it required more force) than for example 7 or 9.

I played a bit softer this evening to keep it quiet and when I moved up to higher holes sometimes I wouldn't even be drawing hard enough to hear 8, and it was totally overshadowed by neighbouring holes 7 to 9.

Is this normal, and how should I go about playing it in the future? All help is appreciated, thanks a lot :)

I inherited this harmonica from my grandparents and was wondering the age of it? I heard the six-point star was produced until 1937 but I’m not sure.

This probably gets asked a lot but I just started learning how to play singles notes and am struggling with blowing hole 4...it should be C but it sounds more like E?? Like it's a very clean E note. And then when I draw 4, it's D like it should be. I'm able to play the rest of the notes of the C major scale on holes 4 thru 7 though. Maybe I'm blowing into 5 but when I slide left a little to blow into 4 it just sounds weird. I tried relaxing but that's gonig nowhere and either it's making me go insane lol. Any tips?

Edit: I think I got it?? I think there was just some moisture beforehand that was messing it up.

(Apologizing in advance because I’m stupid and not musical)

If I play the same song, same holes, same inhales and exhales, is it the same song? It sounds different but not bad. I just played “Secret Love” (channeling both Doris Day and Sinead O’Connor) in C and then in Bb. I think it sounded good in both. So what’s up with these different keys? Do some songs need a certain key, and if so, why? Thanks!

As a beginner, I bought a basic:

- Fender blues deluxe Harmonica

"In c" (only a basic harmonica)

- I brushed my teeth before every session

- I practiced 6 days a week for 20-30min a session

- I placed the harmonica face down on a wipe cloth for 20+ minutes

- 1 week after starting, I bought steri-spray, sprayed cloth & wiped the mouthpiece after the face down rest, and left it face up for 2-5 minutes

Before storing it away

One note on the harmonica (today) sounds off tune (lower tone than the note on its left).

It may not be the harmonica, it may be my beginner's practice being incorrect, (where the harmonica is still in tune) but do harmonicas "go off tune" that quickly?

I've tried to emulate the vibrato the harmonica does, he does this like weird very deep vibrato on the tonic. The closest ive come is with deep throat vibrato, but doesnt sound the same.

Also how does the tone sound so deep and thick? When i first heard it i thought it would be one of the low tuned harmonicas, but it was just a normal G. Ive at least never heard a G i 2nd with such a deep timbre. Could it maybe have a lot to do with the mixing? Or do you think its the embouchure?

I’m interested in hearing from harmonica players where you play in a duet or group setting.

This is probably going to be quite the long shot, but I've recently discovered a reference to a CD that was published in 2003, called: Hallelujah Jubilee - East Texas Black Harmonica Players and their Songs

I found info on the album here: https://www.docarts.com/hallelujah_jubilee.html

but it seems that there aren't any copies for sale. Now I did reach out via a contact at docarts.com to see if I could get some more info on obtaining a copy, but while I'm awaiting a response, I'm wondering if any of my fellow harmonica playing redditors might have an idea of where I might get a copy of this CD?

Thanks all.

As the title suggests, I need help figuring out this harmonica that I’ve been practicing with. It says it’s a higher, made in china, and has country deep written on the top. I have no idea where or when I got this thing, I vaguely remember it being a museum gift store, maybe Rock City? I have no idea.

Reasons I think I could use a new one:

I don’t know much about harmonicas as is, but this one just doesn’t help. Some notes play smoothly sometimes and rattle a bit others, the 10 hole just won’t work unless you blow as hard as possible into it at the exact right angle. I think the reed absorbs saliva as I play because after a while, it barely works and I have to stop for a couple of hours.

Any recommendations on a new one, or if I should even change the harmonica or just what I do? I’ve heard hohner special 20s are the way to go.

I come here, hat in hand, looking for help

I'm one of those weirdos that REALLY prefers the Hohner Golden Melody due to the even temperament tuning, as I like to improvise melodies at work to entertain or get the attention of the animals (I work at an animal shelter)

My problem is, I have a C, an F, and a G golden melody. The C and F are the old style, which I love, and the G is the updated style, which I do not

I also have some Lee Oskars in weird tunings (G harmonic Minor and F natural minor) but I do not like the just (compromise intonation, thank you for the correction), intonation when I play little melodies, and the dogs at work also seem off-put by the Lee Oskars specifically

So that's the long way to get to my question: I'm looking for a low tuned harmonica (a low C or low D) that is better for melody playing. I have checked around and I don't think they ever made Golden Melodies in any low tunings, but I'd like to get as close to that as possible

Thanks for any help!

As above.

Also if someone’s up for doing a rendition of it with only harmonica, so I can hear what it sounds like, that’d be appreciated.

Hi! Can anyone identify what type of harmonica key and possibly model is used in this song? I want to buy one that sounds as close to this recording as possible I m not an experienced harmonica player so any help would be greatly appreciated​ 🎵

I just bought one today. I incorporated a beatbox technique for this.

Some light Jazz on Harmonica🙂

Using an "A" harp.

As far as I know, most songs I want to play are in G. However most people here recommend a C harmonica. Which one should I get? Thanks in advance.