I have had a harmonica for many years. I bought a Hohner Blues Harp (in C) and tried to play it. I could get basic tunes from it and even learned to bend some notes, but I was more into guitar and so it mostly sat in a drawer. I have taken it to pub sessions and sometimes used it, if only to make train noises.
I have recently been influenced by @anna-newkey who quite often plays harmonica on songs she sings at pub sessions and open mics. You should check out her videos. In the band we are both in we do a song where we play the kazoo and I bought a harmonica rack for that, but had not actually used it. I just got a cheap one and it is more like operating a bear trap as the springs are so strong. This week I finally tried it with the harmonica. It was tough getting it in there.
I could have learnt a Bob Dylan song, but decided to write my own and it is about this experience. Just a short little ditty. Perhaps this will lead to further experiments.
It was actually not too hard to adapt to playing the two instruments at once. I am used to singing with guitar, so playing the chords is almost on automatic for me. I really just need to work out what to play on the harmonica. I kept it simple this time. You can play melodies or chords. Getting the chords to match the guitar can be the tricky part, but as all the notes are in the scale of C you cannot go far wrong if the song is in the same key.
The cover image was generated by DALL-E. I am including it here in the post as 3speak cuts off parts. It does look like he is eating the 'harp'.
Here is another it generated. The prompt was 'Man playing guitar and harmonica', but the AI seems to have invented a new instrument.
Rock on!
▶️ 3Speak
Excellent!
That's even better than Dylan!
Your own song! Love it! 👏👏👏
It's all your fault! ;) Sometimes it is easier to write a song than to learn one.
!BEER
I'm very happy to take the blame!
It sure is easy for someone who knows how to write a good tune.. 😉
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BEERKING.Ha.. that's brill. Have you tried the nose flute..They are quite good fun. I must dig mine out and bring it to a jam some time.
I don't have one of those. I do have a couple of penny whistles, but I am not great on those.
!BEER
I'll bring one to a jam..they take a bit of getting used to and no good at all if you get a cold. They sound a lot like a Swanee whistle, so you can do a good impression of the Clangers on one.
I do like trying other instruments, but it takes time to master them. I may have to consider what I can keep playing if my hand gets worse. Harmonica doesn't need much finger dexterity.
I saw someone selling a chromatic harmonica on Facebook. I'm just not sure I want something full of someone else's spit :)
Hahaha, yeah I know what you mean. I don't think I'd buy one of those secondhand either. It's not like you can take it apart and scrub it.🤢
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BEER.Great tune !! For a first harmonica/guitar song it's a success...
Hopefully there will be many more! :)
Cheers. It's some thing I need to work on, but adding variety is a good thing.
!BEER
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BEERKING.Sounds great. Nice to hear a new song from you -- it's been too long! I was half expecting the harmonica to be in the wrong key given the line that came before it 😃
I needed something to inspire me. Will have to see if anything else comes to me.
!BEER
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BEER.This is really good...makes me think of getting myself an harmonica (as I already play guitar). Really nice!
Go for it. They are fairly cheap instruments and not too hard to play.
!BEER
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BEER.Eek - the harmonica on a rack team is growing!! Well done!!
That second AI image appears to have one more thumb than natural!
Good attempt. I can hardly sing and play guitar so the fact you were doing both is very good!
The AI gets some weird artefacts. I wonder if it will improve as it learns what people actually look like. These things will only get better and it will be harder to tell what is real.
Some of the google one, dal-e can do some incredible stuff that is hard to tell if done by AI.
I love them all!
Awesome and funny tune Steve, greatly done! 👏👏👏
Have a wonderful new week.