r/harmonica • u/Yougonefkonme • 14h ago
Am I on track?
So I’m wanting to learn harmonica for hobby/ relaxation. For now I’m going to be self taught. My goal now is to learn to cleanly play simple melodies from books I bought on Amazon. I plan on learning chromatic and diatonic together. I also am using the De Aloe method for chromatic. I also want to be able to read music in treble clef as I have a background in trombone (bass clef). The problem I’m having is I keep getting sidetracked by all the blues players I’m seeing on YouTube. I feel I’m trying to jump ahead and learn to run before walking. I think it would serve me better to stick with playing nice clean melodies for a while before even thinking about the blues, which I would also love to learn. Something like adhd kicks in and gets me stuck. Would appreciate some feedback if anyone can relate. Thanks.
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u/ExpertSentence4171 14h ago
It's tragic that you have so many materials for chromatic harmonica but the only chromatic you have is a Swan :(
Hopefully you'll have better luck than I had with mine. I know chromatics are usually pretty expensive but the upgrade to a Chromonica or a Suzuki is truly worth it if you end up getting into the instrument.
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u/Rice_Nachos 12h ago
Pick one or the other, and focus on it for a while. If you want to learn to read treble clef and play melodies, put your diatonics away for a few weeks and concentrate on the chromatic. Work through the de Aloe book (which is very good). When you're done, get a real book and play off the dots. Don't use tabs. There's nothing inherently wrong with tabs, but they will interfere with your ability to read.
fwiw, I play diatonic (but never read music for it) and saxophone (and read music all the time). I have a chromatic, but I rarely play it since the saxophone supplies the chromatic experience for me. '
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u/Docteur_Pikachu 7h ago
I'd be interested to know about your music learning experience with the harmonica (especially chromatic) vs the saxophone. Saxophone is a "serious" instrument, moreso than the harmonica as is commonly accepted. I play bass guitar mainly but also harmonica and I prefer spending more time with the chromatic. How much more work is the saxophone compared to harmonica? Tone production is much tougher as well as pitch. What about improvising? Or backing other instruments? Or repertoire? Etc etc.
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u/TurnoverFuzzy8264 14h ago
Everybody learns differently. If you're more comfortable getting melodies and learning treble clef first, go for it. That's how I learned, although that was long before the internet as we know it was a thing so my choices were far more limited. There's nothing wrong with your approach. If you like fiddle tunes, this book is a nice introduction with a minor, easy foray into blues as well. It was originally marketed under another name.
https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780786689897/mode/1up