Posted by El Pedro Nacho (208.49.238.132) on June 02, 2000 at 20:46:45:
In Reply to: Re: What type of Harmonica do I have? posted by Gee Harp on May 02, 2000 at 15:21:32:
: : Hello all, and thank you for reading this. I would like to know what type of harmonica I have. It has a total of 32 holes! 16 on top, and 16 on bottom. I am trying to learn how to play, but everyone talks about ten holed harmonicas only... What can I do?
: : Please help,
: : Al
To be fair, shouldn't we be more objective? I agree with Gee Harp in the sense that you should ditch what I imagine to be and Echo tremolo diatonic harp for a standard 10-hole diatonic, unless you plan on playing the German national anthem or some other German stuff. For blues, and rock not a good idea to use that thing, mainly since it doesn't seem to bend the greatest...now I could be wrong about that since the last time I played one was when I was little, but I seem to recall it hardly bending at all...which would make sense, since it's actually the reed OPPOSITE of the one you are using that bends (for example, if you draw on 3, the blow reed is actually the one being bent). I'm pretty sure those harps consist of two keys, though I'm not 100%...maybe 90%.
But about being objective... C, the easiest harp in the world to find, is what I reccommend starting out with... I agree with the site in that respect. If you really plan on going all out with the C, G really is the counterpart to it in blues. A has the deepest sound, and E will warm the cockles of your heart with it's high-pitched melodic sound. If you plan on playing most blues, I reccomend any of these. And as for Blues Traveler, I will say that good ol' John tends to use E a heck of alot, A frequently enough, and D on occasion... Of course, other keys are used as well, but these are the ones he frequents. I hope this helps in some way, even if it doesn't help YOU with YOUR question.