Practice tongue blocking on either side. For now use the one easiest. Keep trying to generate a tune if only breifly and partial. Whistle in to the harp, sing into it to the time of the song or create your own da da da da da da. Blow into the harp, move it around, back and forth slow or faster, Blow into your harp, get lost bill, get lost bill, hope you drown in the .creek
Alright, I hear that. Smack your lips almost closed, place them on the holes, yoiur mouth almost closed. Lightly blow, and draw, whistle or sing, softly moving the harmonica back and forth or anywhere you want as you while, sing, or breath, "My brother, Bill, had a still on the hill where he run off a gallon or two, and the bussards in the shy got so drunk they could not fly, from the funes of that good ole mountain dew.
Listen, Young’un. I’m an old man, not a magician. I may be an old father figure and that’s true so how long do you think it would take you to teach me to play the piano with me in Arizona and you in Road Island or somewhere. It ain’t easy. Don’t answer that. I already know the answer. You couldn’t do it. Nobody could. But that’s a good old mountain song. pick you a few bars and hum them into the harp.
Bill, you could easily learn the piano by yourself, if you can learn the harmonica all by yourself. My mother's girlfriend talked me into giving her daughter piano lessons once when I was a teenager. She tried to pay me. I felt so guilty because I didn't know what I was doing, and told her we had to stop, even for free. If I'm going to just hum into the harmonica, I might as well play the comb. I did that as a kid. Did you? We used waxed paper. It tickles your lips (always some downside with every musical instrument ).
Yes I did play the comb. We didn't have wax paper but a torn off piece of Montgomery Ward catalog. I started to mention it's just like blowing on the comb a few days ago but thought you might think I was talking, well, you know, it's not something too many people talk about and you might think I had lost it if you hadn't done such a thing. Blow into the harp, hole four through seven, just like on a comb. It's not going to sound like Johnny Cash but with a practice and help it might. It don't have to be perfect. And at my age I couldn't learn to play the piano or anythiong else. I'm a man and had no mother to teach me from age two. I didn't ever have a piano. if I han never gone to church I would never have known what a piano was. I would have sit in that piano bar in Seattle listening to this brilliant man play on something never knowing what. A lonely soldier waiting to be shipped out somewhere, sipping his gin and tonic.
Bill, you could learn. The most important thing is wanting to learn it, versus being forced to take lessons. My parents bought an old used player piano (for $5, I think) and put it down the basement when I was 13. I spent hours down there every day trying to figure it out. The thing that helped most was a cardboard display my girlfriend gave me, you slipped behind the keys, something like this. It's how I learned to read music. But I never learned music theory.
I never gave a thought to playing a piano or too seriously anything else. I grew up thinking women played pianos. I would not want to learn now. I am too old to learn anything. I’ve got one foot in the grave now and I went outthe other morning and spent good money on a hearing aid. The one I have is about shot. But that is or may be bad judgement. I ‘ve never seen a a cardboard chart like that.
Drug out the electric pressure washer and tried to figure out why water suddenly started gushing out the trigger handle last time I used it. This has been on my to-do list for over 2 years. Thought I'd try using it to wash the pollen out of the screens on the front porch. The manual says just replace the entire handle if anything goes wrong with it. But this model has been discontinued, all parts are listed as "obsolete," except for O-rings. Seems like too much water coming out to be just O-rings. Amazingly there are YouTube videos that show this very problem, and what to expect when you tear apart a trigger handle on a pressure washer to fix it. What have I got to lose? .Sixteen screws later... There are TWO tubes inside, and TWO water lines. Different from all others. Probably why it was discontinued. One tube is aluminum and one is plastic. The plastic one is cracked. Could you replace this segment with a hose? The tools and parts would be expensive, and it would probably leak anyway, since it would be the first time I ever tried to do it. The water line for the cracked tube goes through the soap dispenser, and I never use that. Could you just cap off the water line that runs through the plastic tube, at the pump? Not sure. Not sure I could find a cap. I got it all back together (minus 1 screw, but I haven't given up hope finding it yet). Even if I couldn't fix it, at least I didn't waste a lot of time searching for new O-rings, and solved a puzzle. Don't think I used the pressure washer enough to justify getting another one. I can use the hose to wash the screens. Likely I'll just put it out near the street with a FREE sign. Someone will take it. The pump and motor are good.
They used to put small childish prizes in boxes of Crackjacks. Kids often delighted in getting a box of CrackerJack toes what was the prize. CrackerJacks are still made by Frito Lay. They usually pop up durting baseball season and satisfy sweet tooth while watching a game. But grocery stores stocked and sold them back when. Somebody pop out a harmonica and someone was bound to say, Ï'll bet you got that in a box of CrackerJacks." Or some other derogatory remark about the harmonica. Adam's explanation was better but I seldom heard anything other than jokes, ofcourse he doesn't play an instrument, that's a harmonica. And harmonicas were cheap,a few cents or not much more. Anything that inexpensive could be any good and certainly unworthy of a musician. They were the object of ridicule. I don't think it applied to the Chromatic but then I never heard a serious chromatic until I was grown. I didn't start out to play a harmonica. I broke a plastic medical device and thought at the time I'd not get another and the medication I was taking didc not suit me or work. A harmonica popped into my mind as a possible replacement device. I learned to play beause of empathy for some of those around me hated the terrible sound but wouldn't say much because of my illness. I learned to play better because I liked it and it blended and harmonized with a guitar. Some blues players play and get a little respect, but most like myself, most people just wish we'd take our noise and go away. It's the same here or anywhere,I suppose. So, if you want to be ridiculed, learn the harmonica. I think it is safe to talk about one on a discussion forum.
@Bill Boggs I was surprised there weren't more harmonica players in that video about Lamar Lunsford and the Mountain music, particularly since they don't cost so much compared to other instruments. The one harp player I remember was sort of making a joke out of it. (first 50 seconds) I am not finding it easy at all. Moving on from scales temporarily, like you suggested. But will come back to them from time to time until I get the scale error free at least 10 times in a row.