Harmonica - C or D?

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Been messing around with it for a few days (once every few months I'll pick it up and play for a week and then get frustrated) - Does anyone play? Do you guys like harmonicas? On records or otherwise?

― roger adultery (roger adultery), Monday, 12 April 2004 00:04 (twenty-two years ago)

No, I don't play one. Yes and Yes to the next two.

Bob Dylan and Neil Young have made careers out of using them.

Others I would have liked to have heard more from:

Steve Tyler
Mick Jagger
Robert Plant

Classic, of course.

― jim wentworth (wench), Monday, 12 April 2004 00:54 (twenty-two years ago)

I prefer kazoos.

― Sasha (sgh), Monday, 12 April 2004 03:45 (twenty-two years ago)

Search: Little Walter
Destroy: John Popper

― spittle (spittle), Monday, 12 April 2004 12:55 (twenty-two years ago)

love both kazoos and harmonicas.

Like nearly everyone I've heard play the thing: from dylan to karou abe, beefheart and some of the blues people I've heard.

Bruce russell, from a hadful of dust, plays kazoo while hitting pots and pans, and then he will read poetry. so classic.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Monday, 12 April 2004 13:44 (twenty-two years ago)

i like it, especially dylan's and young's playing. can't stand popper's. but i too get frustrated when i try to play it.

― AaronK (AaronK), Monday, 12 April 2004 14:21 (twenty-two years ago)

I usually just squeeze out whole-note supporting bits via harmonica strap-on whilst playing pianer/geetar/etc.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Monday, 12 April 2004 14:27 (twenty-two years ago)

Two words: Johnny Marr

― bimble (bimble), Tuesday, 13 April 2004 08:33 (twenty-two years ago)

it's the only instrument I can just pick up and play so of course I think it's classic. I would like to learn to play it properly though.

― chris (chris), Tuesday, 13 April 2004 08:36 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm pretty good at playing an invisible harmonica...

― mark grout (mark grout), Tuesday, 13 April 2004 08:59 (twenty-two years ago)

why all the John Popper hatred? I'm not jumping to his defense or anything but I don't think Blues Traveler are a terrible band and Popper is actually quite proficient / imaginative to my ears.

And, has Bruce Russell ever recorded a 'dud' in his life?

― roger adultery (roger adultery), Tuesday, 13 April 2004 12:37 (twenty-two years ago)

i like a few blues traveler songs, but it's really in spite of popper's harmonica playing. it just sounds overly flashy to me most of the time. i'm just trying to differentiate between his harmonica and the rest of the band, even his singing.

― AaronK (AaronK), Tuesday, 13 April 2004 13:39 (twenty-two years ago)

I hate to say it but I kinda like the Popper harp solo in the breakdown of DMB's "What Would You Say?". Also, he plays a nice subtle bit on the last track on Cee-Lo's first album.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 13 April 2004 13:41 (twenty-two years ago)

I've never been good enough to do anything in a "band setting".

Best use is what Dylan did on his studio version of "Moonshiner" -- very lyrical.

Rick Estrin from Little Charlie & The Nightcats plays some mean harp, if you like bar blues, that is.

Check out these chumps:

http://images.google.com/images?q=tbn:02PrDOd9BqgJ:www.moorsmagazine.com/images/CATSBMC.JPG

― christoff (christoff), Tuesday, 13 April 2004 13:53 (twenty-two years ago)

William Clarke was a late blues harp player who made his sound like a horn section, he was amazing.

Little Walter, Junior Wells, Sonny Boy Williamson, James Cotton, Lazy Lester, Paul Butterfield, Charlie Musselwhite to thread.

― Gear! (Gear!), Tuesday, 13 April 2004 15:51 (twenty-two years ago)

Hello? Leee Oskar from War?

― Ian Grey (Ian_G), Tuesday, 13 April 2004 15:56 (twenty-two years ago)

When the harmonica is mixed about fifty thousand times louder than the rest of the instruments: DUD!!

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Tuesday, 13 April 2004 16:08 (twenty-two years ago)

You can't beat Little Walter, who's probably the single greatest instrumentalist to come out of the blues scene...mid-century, that is. His work with Jimmy Rogers on things like "You're the One" and "Sloppy Drunk" is amazing.

Also I like, in the blues realm, Rice Miller.

But the guy is Toots Thielmans. Any of you familiar with Elis Regina, go pick up Elis and Toot's album cut in some Scandanavian country around 1970, I think. Really amazing stuff.

But D--Bob Dylan. Never could stomach his "harp" playing at all.

C-Stevie Wonder is good.

That Blues Traveler guy, he makes me chortle with his hunting vest full of his harps, c'mon, man, stand up there, get a suit, get rid of the vest, what are you, going duck-hunting or something? Jeezus.

― eddie hurt (ddduncan), Tuesday, 13 April 2004 20:04 (twenty-two years ago)

five years pass...

I'm wondering if a Harmonica is a good present. I think I'd like it if I were given one, so I'm going with yes.

― krakow, Thursday, 26 November 2009 09:59 (sixteen years ago)

Last week we gave one to a 3 year old son of friends (they'd told us he loved music/singing). Looked at it with a 'huh'-face after opening the parcel, then went wild (for the rest of the day) after we showed him how it worked. So yeah, it makes for an excellent present :-)

― willem, Thursday, 26 November 2009 10:08 (sixteen years ago)

Excellent, thanks for the vote of confidence.

― krakow, Thursday, 26 November 2009 10:10 (sixteen years ago)

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