Harmonica techniques - The technique of playing Harmonica

Hope this article will help you somewhat. This song is for those who know how to play harmonica. This article is written based on the subjectivity of pagoda, so it may not be true for some of you. This article aims to share your personal experience as the main. I also hope you will share your own experiences in this discussion to make this topic more interesting. Since this article is quite long, pagoda will update slowly. Follow up regularly.

1. What is the technique when playing harmonica?

When playing any musical instrument, to make the music play well and soulful, the player must use techniques to describe the beauty and soul of the song. Likewise, singing can be sung, but to sing well, it requires singers to have special techniques: altitude, lowness, level, expressiveness ... etc ... Play So is harmonica. You may already know how to play, but when you blow, the sound of the trumpet makes people deaf, neighbors complain you or you play just a few minutes feel tired ... etc ... So, let Let your trumpet sound alluring, making yourself and your listeners like it, you have to use the techniques when you play. Applying techniques when playing harmoinca will help you show soulful, inspiring music and create a style for yourself.

2. What techniques do harmonica play?

According to pagoda, there are many techniques when playing harmonica. The playing techniques are mainly due to the creativity of each player, so it is difficult to grasp. However, there are a number of specific and indispensable techniques transmitted from generation to generation when playing harmonica that most players know. With its humble understanding, pagoda lists a number of specific and important techniques when playing harmonica:

- Single sounding technique (single note, pucker, tongue block)
- sound blowing technique (Chord)
- Hand technique (hand effect, wahwah)
- Technique of breathing (Breathing)
- Cashflow technique (vibrato)
- Tongue technique
- Technical bend, overblow
..........
Wow, look at the list so much? !! Don't worry, pagoda will go through each technique one by one.

3. When to apply harmonica techniques:

Depending on the style and interests and depending on the genre (pop, blue, jazz, rock, country ...), we apply the techniques logically. Abusing techniques when playing harmonica will create the opposite effect such as losing the purity of the music and making the listener feel uncomfortable. Pagoda itself hears some songs played by some of you and even hears the songs played by pagoda itself, many times the techniques are overused. In addition, it depends on the harmonica type (Chromatic, diatonic, tremolo ...) that techniques can be applied accordingly. Depending on the type of trumpet, the structural material that the application of the technique will become easy or difficult, noticeable or just dim.

4. Learn each technique of harmonica

4.1 Single sounding technique (Single note, pucker, tongue block)

Single-blown technique is the most basic and most important technique for beginners. As the name implies, this technique is the way the player plays (blowing or breathing) a certain note that only pronounces a single note without other notes merging. To do this, players will have 2 ways:
- Blocking tongue: Can be applied to tremolo and diatonic: For tremolo, when you play a note, you only need to use your tongue to cover the bottom hole of harmonica to create a single sound. As for diatonic and chromatic, you can also use this technique to create a single sound by looking like this:

In general, when playing a tremolo, it is necessary to use this tongue-breaking technique to play a single sound. As for diatonic and chromatic, the application of tongue blocking techniques is quite difficult and discourages you.
- Pucker: You can apply this technique to diatonic and chromatic if you don't like to stop the tongue. Pagoda also applies this technique to create a single sound when playing diatonic.

To be continued