Author: Richard

Tunes to Play 

Star Wars – May The Force Be With You!

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Mmm…come to the Harp side you have!

One of our junior players asked if he can learn the Star Wars theme on his harmonica. We asked our good friend Chewbacca the Wookiee for help.

Chewy says you can play the theme on your harmonica. He sent us a lovely photo of his Rebel Alliance Harmonica Belt and a recording.

Instructions for playing the tune are below. Chewy has shown Darth Vader how to play too. You can see Vader’s dark-side harping below. Remember the Purple music is for four hole harmonicas, and Orange music is for ten hole harmonicas. May the harp be with you!

Too ta too ta Solo?

Each number tells you which hole to play. D means draw (breath in). B means blow (breath out). So let’s play. Click the green button under each chunk to hear how it goes.

1B   3B

2D   2B   1D   4B   3B

4B   6B

5D   5B   4D   7B   6B

2D   2B   1D   4B   3B

2D   2B   2D   1D

5D   5B   4D   7B   6B

5D   5B   5D   4D

1B   3B

2D   2B   1D   4B   3B

4B   6B

5D   5B   4D   7B   6B

2D   2B   1D   4B   3B

2B   1D   2B   1B

5D   5B   4D   7B   6B

5B   4D   5B   4B

May the Harp be with you!
Well done! Now put it all together again and show your friends, family and grown ups what you can do.

Tunes to Play 

Lady Gaga Harmonica – Bad Romance

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Gaga, ooh la la!

Here’s the one we promise to demonstrate at school…. but then we go and play Twinkle Twinkle instead!

So, just to prove you can play Lady Gaga on the harmonica, here’s the chorus to her hit Bad Romance.

Instructions for playing the tune are below. Purple music is for four hole harmonicas, and Orange music is for ten hole harmonicas. (more…)

Crazy Harmonicas Harmonica Trivia 

Fastest Harmonica Player In The World

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World’s fastest harmonica player

With 103 notes in twenty seconds (or 285bpm), the Guinness World Record for fastest harmonica player is held by Nicky Shane of Santa Barbara, California, USA.

The record was monitored at SRS studios in Santa Barbara on the 8th of September 2005 and the melody played was When The Saints Come Marching In. Perhaps that should be When The Saints Come Sprinting In.

Nicky is a former stand up comedian who more recently has become a leading exponent of heavy metal harmonica. Turn the volume on your computer way down, move all pets to another room and check out Nicky in the following video clip. We present The Star Spangled Banner…

Rock and Roll! Ask a grown up about a guitarist called Jimi Hendrix who played the same tune at a festival called Woodstock in the 1960s!

4 Hole Harmonica Hints and Tips 

There’s A Duck In My Harmonica!

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How to fix a broken 4 hole harmonica

From time to time a harmonica can stop doing what it should do. Instead of playing clear notes, one reed sounds a bit strange. It may rattle, it may not play at all or, as one of our junior players recently discovered, a duck had climbed inside his harmonica. Blow hole 4 made a beautiful quack!

Since the 4 hole Hohner Speedy does not come in its own case, the problem is usually caused by a piece of dust or a small flake that has become trapped under the reed. Occasionally a reed can just get stuck. Sometimes it goes out of tune because the metal has started to fatigue – it’s too tired to carry on and it’s ready to snap off. (more…)

4 Hole Harmonica 

Golly Speedy!

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The Hohner Speedy harmonica

When you start harmonica, it can be hard to play ten holes. So Hohner make a special harmonica with the four most important ones. The holes are bigger too, so it’s easy to play. It’s called Speedy and it’s great for learning new songs. To hear Speedy, click the green button.

Now see if you can play all the notes. Each hole has a number from 1 to 4. B is blow (breath out). D is draw (breath in).

1B   1D   2B   2D   3B   3D   4D   4B

We give each note a name too.

C     D     E     F     G     A     B     C 

You can see our tune printed on top of the harmonica! Speedy comes in blue, pink, black or yellow and is easy to carry in your pocket or in your school bag.

Harmonica Trivia 

Harmonicas In Space

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Houston we have a problem

In December 1965, the Gemini 6 space mission was launched by NASA with two astronauts on board. One of the astronauts, Wally Schirra Jr, was a harmonica player. When the mission was over and the astronauts headed back to earth for Christmas, they played a trick on their friends at mission control.

Wally said he could see another space craft with a man dressed in a red suit at the controls. The team at NASA were confused and worried; could it be a Soviet Russian spacecraft? Then Wally played Jingle Bells on his tiny four-hole Little Lady harmonica while someone, perhaps his co-pilot Tom Stafford, also shook some mini sleigh bells. A reply came back from NASA; ‘You’re too much!’

To infinity and beyond

So the harmonica was the first musical instrument to be played in outer space. To stop his harmonica from floating around the capsule, Wally attached it to his space suit with a strip of velcro and some thread. The four hole Little Lady is also the smallest harmonica in production. It’s only 3½ centimetres long!