9 Best Harmonica Lessons for Intermediate Review 2022

Howard Levy is an accomplished harmonicist with more than 40 years of playing and teaching the harmonica. He pioneered the harmonica playing techniques of overbending and overblowing.

He is considered an authority on the harmonica, with numerous collaborations in blues, jazz, classical and world music. You can take this course by level or by your preferred style; classical, blues, jazz, folk/Irish/bluegrass, Latin/Brazilian, rock/pop, Indian/middle eastern/eastern European.

In the intermediate lessons you will learn;

· 1st Hole Draw

· 4th Hole Draw

· Blues Licks

· 6th Hole Draw

· 2nd Hole Draw

· Notating Bends

· 3rd Hole Draw

· Vibrations and Advice

· Bending 8 Blow on 1st Position Blues, C and G Harps

· Difference Tones

· Bending 7 (a little)

· 1st Position Blues Licks

· Major Scales and Exercises

· Notes on the Harmonica

· Throat Tremolo

· Bend and Unbend Vibrato

· Blues Vamps

· Pentatonic Scale: "Old Joe Clark", Exercises and Licks

· 12-Bar Blues

· First Position Melodies, and Blues

· First Position Jazz: The 2-5-1 Progression

· 3rd Position Intermediate

· 4th Position - Scales and Exercises, A Minor Arpeggio, A Minor Blues, E Minor on a G Harp

· 5th Position: Scales and Patterns, Middle Eastern Microtonal Bent Notes,

· 6th Position Intermediate

You can find these lessons on ArtistWorks;

Udemy is one of the largest online learning platforms, hosting lessons for hundreds of subjects, musical instruments among them. Ben Hewlett’s lessons on the harmonica on Udemy are highly rated with more than 17,000 enrolling to study. This is a comprehensive course that will teach you;

· Using hands properly with the harmonica

· Breathing properly

· Straight and swing rhythms

· Playing 12-bar blues, chords, chugging, and tone

· Single, double and triple tonguing

· Modes and positions

· Tongue-blocked embouchures and playing single notes with a pucker

· Improvisation and soloing on the harmonica using the major and minor pentatonic scale

· Types of vibratos and tremolos

· Bending notes

At the end of the course, you will be able to play in the styles of harmonica masters such as Sonnyboy Williamson, Little Walter, Bob Dylan or Mick Jagger. This is a long course with 242 lectures that would last about 23 hours played continuously.

You can buy smaller parts of the course if you feel that the main course is too long. You can contact Ben on WhatsApp or skype to clarify problematic points. find this course at;

Harmonica might look like a simple brass instrument but playing it requires top-notch skills and playing capabilities. If this musical instrument has always intimidated you, this course will help you strengthen the basic knowledge and clear out all the doubts.

With this course, you will be able to play the blues on your harmonica without being hard on yourself regarding the learning experience. By the end of the course, you will hone the blues and rhythms and play the harmonica at its best.

There are over 100 students enrolled in the course, and by making a learning community with them, you will be able to make your learning, an engaging experience. With this course, you can learn the chords, tongue blocking, tone, chugging, breathing, blues, chordal tunes, and Sonny Terry.

To take course, you only need to have a 10-hole diatonic harmonica in C and some basic knowledge about the fundamentals. In this course, there are 12 video lessons, and you need to watch one every week and gain new practicing assignments.

In addition, there are PDFs and mp3 formats available, so you can learn reading the notes, and tablature. If you want to interact with other students, you can go to the forum and ask the questions from the fellow students!

Creating music on harmonica is no less than an art, and whoever wishes to become the artists of this musical instrument, this intermediate course will be a perfect start for you. Through this course, the students will know how to bend the blues which is one-step ahead of learning the blues.

There are over 200 students enrolled in the course and you can connect with them through the forum. You can even post your queries regarding the course and you will be able to get all the answers. With this course, the musicianship skills be enhanced.

In this course, the students will learn 1, 4, and 6 notes in the series of 12 lectures. In addition, you will learn about the history of harmonica, time signatures, honing and using the single notes, making rhythms and trainsounds, and learn scales along with decoration of the tunes.

This is all possible for students to learn in a fun and interactive way. To start with this course, you only need a 10-hole diatonic harmonica in C. Also, you can learn how to bend the notes, play the backing tracks, and supporting charts of the tunes.

Would you like to play more popular tunes competently? This course will help you learn how to improvise by learning using 22 popular tunes. it is designed to be fun, with interactive jam sessions that come out very well on external speakers. you will learn how to;

· Improvise and jam with a friend on the piano or guitar

· Play popular rock, pop or blues tunes on top of the 22 tunes that you will learn in the course

· Add your style and touch to a song when playing with a band, by improvising musical riffs

· Use music theory application in jamming in a band or a friend

· Develop a solid sense of rhythm which is very crucial in making beautiful sounds with the harmonica

· Play the harmonica alongside the guitar in special mixing sessions

It is expected that at the end of the course, you will be able to play the full range of the harmonica and jam with real songs, backing tracks, and real musicians. You will be empowered to personalize the songs according to your music taste through improvisation skills. You will also learn to play in a variety of styles based on the tabs and songs in the lessons from popular artists such as Elvis, Bob Dylan, the Beatles, Bob Marley, rolling stones and other icons.

There are mixing lessons in the course and you will be able to play harmonica confidently. In other words, you will be able to jam on supporting tracks and the main songs all the same. There are over 10,000 students enrolled in the course and you will get to learn from this huge community as well. You can access the forum and ask your questions to gain the much-needed replies.

This course will provide you with the music theory that is essential for your jamming sessions. The best part is that you don’t need to have a musical background or previous knowledge to enroll in this course.

You can find these lessons on Udemy;

This course promises to turn you into a competent harmonica player in 30 days if you follow the instructions and practice 2 minutes daily. This comes with a moneyback guarantee. The course is designed to teach you a lot about the harmonica in a short time, but such that the information does not overwhelm you. The challenging environment will revamp and increases the learning speed. With this course, you only need five minutes of your day to watch a lesson and to practice.

It will lay the foundation you need to branch off into your preferred styles; jazz, rock, tunes, blues or folk. If you have some experience with the harmonica, some of the sections that would interest you are;

· Working with tunes and melodies – working with positions and scales

· Bending notes – This cover bending holes 1 through 6

· Essential scales – You will learn to improvise for C and G major pentatonic scales, and D and E minor pentatonic scales

· Dynamics in music

If you feel that you are in a playing rut and would like to get out, this course would be ideal. It is in easy bites, introducing the next batch of notes only after you have mastered what you are learning. By the end of the course, you will be able to play the harmonica in best way possible. The learning curve is very fun and interactive.

To get enrolled in this course, you only need 10-hole diatonic in the key of C and few minutes from your day. The course is taught by Ben Hewlett, a longtime harmonica player, and teacher, who has taught over 36,000 students. Find the lessons on Udemy;

Dave Gage has been playing and teaching the harmonica for more than 30 years he is also a songwriter with shows such as "Adventures in Wonderland.” He has also recorded with artists such as Bob Casale (Devo), Bill Ward (Black Sabbath), Andy Summer (Police), and Mark Mothersbaugh among others. he has recorded two harmonica heavy albums; Well You Can’t, Now Can You (1995), and Love You Just The Same (2001).

Dave offers harmonica lessons for beginners to advanced players. There are lots of things that you can learn as an intermediate player;

· Intermediate techniques – tongue switching, tongue blocked octaves, drop-offs, warbles, slides, and delayed tongue

· Music theory and application in the harmonica

· Diatonic positions starting 1,2,3,4,5 and 12

· Harmonica rhythms like 12-bar blues chording, hey-dey, hah-dah, and upbeat chugging

· Songs, riffs, and scales for the harmonica

· 12 scales of the chromatic harmonica

· Playing over chord changes

· Alternate and low-tone diatonic and when to use them

· Techniques and tricks for faster play

· Getting the best from your mics and amps

There is a section on techniques that you can filter by your level of play. Dave also teaches blues harmonica and offers lots of other resources to aid in your harmonica lessons. Find more on the website;

Liam Ward is an award-winning harmonica player and teacher. He offers free and paid lessons and loads of other harmonica learning resources. You can filter lessons by your preferred genre or by skill level. You can find free lessons for pop, rock, Christmas, classical, blues, and folk songs.

There is an interesting section where you learn to play Tv and movie theme music on the harmonica. Intermediate lessons are premium, and membership will give you access to lessons such as;

· Different types of harmonica bends

· Rhythmic vs. melodic bends

· The ultimate guide to bending notes

· How and when to play the Blues scale

· Brass-style shuffle riff

· The basic technique for Chromatic blues

· Shuffle blues- classic walking bass line

· Intro to Tongue blocking- how to play low notes, and why you should do it

· Tongue flutters, Tongue popping, and Tongue switching

· How to solo over the five chords

· How to develop a perfect vibrato technique

· How to 2nd position and scales for soloing

· How to find 3rd position and instant trick

· 1st position blues

· 12 bar blues- what do they mean?

· Top 20 blow bend practice licks

You can find the lessons on his website

JP Allen has is a harmonica player and teacher with more than 18 years of teaching at the University of Texas and Austin college. He has been on performance tours in Europe and the US most notably with Grammy-nominated Abra Moore, who he taught to play the harmonica.

He has developed a teaching method he calls ‘no-practice harmonica’ which he promises can make a competent harmonica player in 3 months practicing 3 times a week for 7 minutes per session. The teaching model borrows from the way kids learn a language, which is by imitation and doing. The 15-hour course touches on;

· The 11 core techniques of the harmonica

· How to make single notes

· Bending made easy

· Chords on the harmonica

· Techniques for breathing control

· Hand techniques

· Harmonica rhythms

The lessons will teach you how to play country, folk, classical, blues, gospel, and rock tunes effortlessly. The lessons come with 6 digital songbooks that contain more than one hundred songs for practice. You can opt to take the lessons online or order them on DVD. Find more on the website;