The harmonica is a beautiful instrument that has been around since the early 17th century. It is used in a variety of different music genres, which include categories such as classical music, jazz, country music, and more. It is also known as the mouth organ and is actually one of the easier instruments to get the hang of despite being seemingly difficult to learn.
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It is definitely possible for people to learn to play the harmonica without needing the help of a personal tutor. Here are some of the best ways to do so.
How To Learn Harmonica Without Teacher
The internet is a great means of learning about all kinds of different things. Any sort of queries that you have regarding any specific topic, you can just look it up through a browser or an application and you’ll receive all the answers you could possibly need thanks to it.
That being said, there are lots of guides and lessons for those that are interested in learning how to play different instruments too. This includes the harmonica as well, as you’ll be able to find lots of amazing lessons for it online. An example of one of these amazing lessons for the harmonica which you can take online is listed below.
If you’ve been a harmonica enthusiast for a while now and have heard popular players of the instruments from time to time, there’s little doubt that you’re unfamiliar with the work of Howard Levy. He is one of the best harmonica players of this time, even winning a Grammy award for his amazing skills with the instrument.
In this lesson on ArtistWorks, Howard himself teaches players about everything they need to become great harmonica players.
This includes all the basics from the start to the very end. Obviously, the course starts off with all of the basics that a player needs to get started with the instrument. After that, topics become increasingly difficult but at a suitable pace as to not put too much pressure on the learner.
Players are able to easily notice improvements in the way that they play as they continue to study with this course. In the end, this is a great online harmonica lesson that you should consider taking if you’re looking to learn the instrument without the help of a personal tutor.
2. Online Video Tutorials
If you aren’t in the mood to take lessons online which you have to pay a lot of attention to and sacrifice time from your schedule for, online video tutorials are a great option. These are available on a variety of different websites.
The best part is that you can usually access them for free whenever you want, without having to take time out of your potentially busy schedule. All you have to do is browse for video tutorials that can help you learn the harmonica and you’ll be provided with thousands of different results.
It must be said that while not all of these results are as helpful as one would like them to be, but that doesn’t mean that there are no helpful ones at all. There are lots of great online harmonica video tutorials that go into full detail about it and all of its basics.
We recommend that you try these out if you’re a complete beginner looking to learn most of the important essentials for playing the instrument. But it isn’t completely restricted to beginners either, as there are great options for more advanced players to try too.
Another great thing about the variety of these videos is that they each cover many different aspects of harmonica playing. This includes basics on how you should treat the instrument and maintain it. Much more importantly, it also includes all the different ways that you can play too. There are lots of different harmonica techniques out there, and you can learn more about each specific one thanks to these video tutorials.
3. Follow the Lead of Your Favourite Artists
It must be said that the harmonica is one of the most convenient instruments out there by every means imaginable. It is a very cheap instrument that you’ll be able to find just about anywhere. What makes it even better is that it sounds amazing, is small in size so that it can be transported just about anywhere with ease thanks to its portability, and is very easy to learn. Most of the instruments in the wind family are quite difficult to get the hang of, but this isn’t the case for the harmonica at all.
Its basics are relatively easy to get the hang of, but it is still always helpful to have an example to follow. That way, players know exactly what it is that they need to do and what not to do which helps a lot down the line and greatly increased the learning rate.
Following the lead of your favorite artists is a great means of doing this. All you have to do is open up some live performances of some of your favorite harmonica players and try to mimic what they do. You’ll obviously not be able to do it perfectly at first, but you’ll get much better at it with time as you start to learn new techniques and avoid mistakes while watching them.
The Bottom Line
As already mentioned a couple of times before, you don’t have to worry about the harmonica being a difficult instrument to learn at all as it is one of the easier wind family members to get the hang of. While mastering it entirely is definitely a difficult skill, you can reach that level through any of the options listed above without ever needing a personal teacher.
Whether you try online lessons, follow the example of your favorite harmonica players, or just try out some detailed video tutorials, you’ll find that they’re great alternatives as compared to learning with a tutor.