Introduction to harmonica

Among many musical instruments, the harmonica is relatively simple. After some practice, simple slow music playing is more handy. The following is the basic model essay of harmonica introduction that I collected and sorted out. Welcome to learn from it.

Introduction to Harmonica (1)

Common harmonica types

Polyphonic harmonica

Generally, there are 16 to 28 holes, of which 24 holes are the most common in China.

The holes of the polyphonic piano are divided into two rows. Generally, when playing, the upper and lower reeds of the same hole sound at the same time. Because the vibration frequencies of the two reeds are slightly different, and at the same time, the vibration will produce what is physically called? Shoot? This phenomenon is characterized by periodic changes in sound intensity, which is called. Tik Tok? .

The advantages of polyphonic harmonica are simple and fixed structure, no need for complicated skills, complete variety and tonality, crisp and bright timbre, high volume and strong penetration, which is suitable for some national styles (and can also play pop songs) and is the best choice for beginners.

Bruce harp

Also known as the ten-hole harmonica, this kind of harmonica is extremely popular in Europe and America, and it is the largest group of harmonica lovers.

The length of 10 hole harmonica is usually around 10cm. Generally, 10 hole harmonica has a * * transmission characteristic, that is, bass has no F(Fa) and A(La), and treble has no B(Si), which is specially designed for harmony. Players can still use the bending technique to play the missing scales.

chromatic harmonica

Chromatic harmonica is mainly divided into four types: ten holes, twelve holes, fourteen holes and sixteen holes. Twelve-hole chromatic harmonica is the most widely used.

Improved from the traditional harmonica, by using a clever key, you can play the rising and falling semitones on the harmonica. If you don't press the key, it is equivalent to the white key of the piano. After pressing the key, the horse rises by a semitone, which is equivalent to the black keys.

Chromatic harmonica was deeply attracted by its soft and bright timbre and unique expressive force. Its continuous development has attracted the attention of the music industry, and many composers have created new works for it, such as the British composer River? Warhan? Williams' Harmonica Romance and James? J moody's Suite and Harmonica Concerto are both excellent works of harmonica music.

How do beginners choose the harmonica that suits them?

Look at the style, look at your preferences.

If you have a certain foundation in vocal music and like to show off your skills, it is better to choose the blues harmonica and chromatic harmonica.

If it is zero-based, direct polyphonic harmonica (single tone without stress) ensures quick entry.

Beginners generally recommend choosing a polyphonic harmonica, that is, a 24-hole harmonica.

The polyphonic harmonica is the most convenient harmonica for beginners. The polyphonic harmonica has melodious timbre and complete tonality. With good accompaniment, you can form a small band by yourself.

How to play the harmonica

1. Correct grip posture

The key point is that the left hand grips the center of the piano body in the mandible, the other four fingers are as close as possible, and the palm is curled into a sound room and placed behind the piano.

The right hand grips the right edge of the piano with the thumb and forefinger, the other four fingers are as close as possible, and the two palms echo each other, which is similar to calling to the distance.

The wrist joints of both hands should move freely from side to side at the same time, but don't let the arms follow.

We should pay special attention: don't wrap the palm of your left hand around the back of the piano at once. And the four fingers are parallel to the harmonica, leaving a channel for lips to slide and play.

Don't be stiff when your shoulders droop naturally, and the inner edge of your arm will not sway from side to side if it is slightly attached to your body. Whether standing or sitting, keep your upper body straight and don't hunch over. Keep your feet shoulder-width apart, relax your muscles and keep an elastic state ready at any time.

Another thing to note is that when playing the harmonica, we suggest that beginners move the harmonica with their hands instead of their mouths.

The correct way to hold the piano can make people feel beautiful and practical. In the process of playing, you won't stop playing because of the wrong way to hold the piano.

2. Know and be familiar with the scale position of the harmonica.

The left hand side of the piano is bass, the middle is alto, and the right side is treble.

How to quickly remember the position of scales? Xiaole used to write all scales on a piece of paper and stick them on the harmonica (a stupid and direct learning method)

Blowing and sucking are familiar through practice.

Practice time

Monotonic exercise

Suggestion: play the do sound first, and then put down a sound. Be sure to blow this note clean before playing the next one. Otherwise, the back will get worse and worse.

When practicing single notes, you should play long notes, not once, but all at once.

We are most bored when we practice single notes. You must like harmonica very much, so that you can stick to it, become a qualified harmonica lover and play the music in your heart.

When you are doing something new, you can blow it. When inhaling, you may feel that your breath is not enough, especially the last two sixties and sevens, and it is not smooth at all. This is that you can't use gas and don't practice enough. After a period of practice, these will be solved.

Alto practice 1

This may be difficult for beginners. You can listen to the slow demonstration several times and then follow it. Or download a metronome, it will be easier to play.

As long as you play a single note, there is no pressure to play this. Do re mi has only three sounds. The most important thing is to master the rhythm.

Intermediate exercise 2

This exercise is used to train your exercise and ventilation speed. You can learn to breathe and move by playing four bars repeatedly.

After the alto practice, let's talk about the basic practice of bass and treble.

The most difficult thing about the scale of bass and treble is that the position is irregular.

The reed in bass is easily influenced by the change of mouth shape. Too flat mouth shape will make the timbre ugly and even difficult to blow out, so how to relax your mouth (as if there is an egg in your mouth) is an important key to produce correct and beautiful timbre.

Although the reed in the treble is not as bad as that in the bass, because the tone is very high and too hard will make him very sharp and uncomfortable, so luck has become one of the tricks.

When you master the position of harmonica scale and the order of playing and sucking through single-tone practice, we can choose some relatively simple tracks to practice.

Introduction to Harmonica (2)

There are three kinds of solo harmonica: polyphonic harmonica, semitone harmonica and ten-hole harmonica.

And the introduction skills of these three harmonicas: single tone, are the same.

The so-called tone, what is tone? As the name implies, a single sound on the harmonica means to blow clean and clear sound. We often listen to all kinds of music, and most of the time we are playing the main theme, and the cleanliness and accuracy of a single tone is a necessary condition for playing a good song.

What we are talking about now is monophonic performance, which can be roughly divided into two types. One is to play directly in a hole. This playing method is more suitable for all kinds of harmonicas, and it is more convenient to play, so that you can master the single-tone skills faster.

Compared with 10 hole harmonica and polyphonic harmonica, chromatic harmonica has slightly larger hole spacing and larger holes, making it easier to play single notes.

Compared with chromatic harmonica, the single hole of the ten-hole harmonica is slightly smaller, but compared with the polyphonic harmonica, the mouth shape is more convenient to aim at the single hole.

The polyphonic harmonica has a long body and many holes. Compared with other harmonicas, polyphonic tones need a smaller mouth shape to align.

The above is one of the single-tone playing methods. In addition to playing a single note directly at the hole, there is another way to play the ten-hole harmonica, which is called? Tongue blockage? In the polyphonic harmonica, it is called? New tone? But as far as the gameplay is concerned, it should belong to a kind of method.

The tongue-blocking method of the ten-hole harmonica is often seen in the performance of early blues artists, because the tongue-blocking method can make the player contain the piano deeper, theoretically, the * * * tone will be enhanced, and the timbre of a single tone will be deeper.

The polyphonic harmonica may use this method more. Compared with the 10-hole harmonica and chromatic harmonica, the polyphonic harmonica is more convenient to use this method, because its hole ratio is smaller and it will make people more accustomed to it. In the later period, the polyphonic harmonica used a method called. Tongue accompaniment? Technically, it is also necessary to master this tongue blocking method skillfully.

Study? what's up After playing a single note (referring to a clear and clean single note), you need to practice more. what's up Become? Cooked? Monotone practice is the most important part of harmonica practice. Only by laying a solid foundation of single tone, and then learning other skills or playing methods, can we understand and express better and faster.

At the same time, only by mastering the single tone can you learn the new songs you want to learn and other skills you want to continue to learn.

Introduction to Harmonica (3)

The so-called 24 holes is a treble polyphonic harmonica for learning solo skills. Harmonica is actually divided into solo harmonica and ensemble harmonica.

Speaking of the solo of the treble harmonica, at first, the composer didn't know what kind of instrument the harmonica was. There are not many short works or concertos really created for polyphonic harmonica. So many of our harpsichords are adapted from songs or other instrumental music. There are more slow songs for ordinary beginners. The solo uses a treble polyphonic harmonica, which means (treble) the original or (soprano or children's treble). Ordinary songs have two ranges.

However, since you are learning solo, you must also learn solo skills. This requires 4 degrees of high and low notes, occasionally the bass accompaniment will touch the lowest note 5, and the treble accompaniment will sometimes touch the highest note 3. The octave method also needs three octaves. So learning solo polyphonic harmonica requires 24 holes.

The reason why the high-grade piano 2 1 hole is actually that the Japanese use 2 1 hole because the palm is relatively small. The Miyata harmonica disappeared for a while. Existing reprint MH2 1. Another product of that year, Dragonfly 152 1, has been passed down to this day. Actually, there is no treble 7. Although octaves are difficult to play, a high note of 7 is better than nothing. At present, before other factors have changed, solo should be 24 holes. Unfortunately, there is no 24-hole high-grade piano. In my opinion, the company made a mistake. However, it is true that a short harmonica is easier to play the piano.

How to practice porous inclusion method

Many students have a little difficulty in practicing polyphonic columns with porous method. The multi-hole grip is an important skill in playing polyphonic harmonica, and it can also be said that it is one of the skills in practicing polyphonic harmonica? Hey? . I was busy at work some time ago, so I didn't settle down seriously to answer my classmates' questions. In order to cooperate with the course of grading polyphony for everyone, I will talk about my experience and understanding of practicing porous and inclusive techniques.

The first thing to say is that many textbooks are called porous inclusion method? New one-tone play? 、? Practical single-tone performance? A method that contains a single hole is called. Old-fashioned single tone? Simple tone? . Personally, I have repeatedly stressed that I strongly disapprove of this title. Both of them are very practical, each has its own advantages and expressive force, and can't be neglected for beginners. Of these two methods, the single-hole method is relatively easy to get started, and the porous method is relatively difficult, so today I will open a new post to discuss the practice of the porous method.

1, mouth shape

Open your mouth half way, put your lips in a little, and pull the corners of your mouth to both sides. Looking in the mirror, it is the muscles of the cheek that pull the corners of the mouth open. (The old fairy looks in the mirror and finds that her mouth is a little crooked, but it looks better than Gao Bo, the host of CCTV. D) If you practice the single-hole method for a long time, it may be more troublesome to practice the multi-hole method now, because single-hole lips tend to be round and narrow, and porous lips tend to be flat and wide. What should we pay attention to here is the piano? Wide? No? Deep? . When you put the piano in your mouth, your lips will be close to your teeth, not outward. When you have seven or nine holes, you can even feel the cold lattice sticking to your face (I hope it's not because the old fairy's face is fat).

If you do as I say, you will master the correct mouth shape. Just try it. Now, don't talk. Do you think the muscles in your cheeks are a little sore? What? No? Then I still haven't found the right mouth shape. Come on, do facial exercises with me: keep your mouth half open, keep your teeth still, pull your mouth and close your lips. One, two, three, four, two, three, four, feel it? All right, let's move on.

2, the position of the tongue

When you have understood what I said before, it's your turn to play the tongue, which plays a very important role in playing the polyphonic harmonica (don't ask me what this is, and don't ask me how to use it in the future, let it work first). Let your tongue walk slowly from the background to the foreground, tilt it to the left, face the mirror, and put it in the middle of the left lip (be careful not to be the leftmost corner of the mouth), then put the piano in your mouth and try to blow a long breath. At this time, two or three tones may be emitted at the same time. Try to adjust the position of the tongue, or close the corners of the mouth until only the right corner of the mouth emits a clear single tone. Did you do it? I did it! Don't worry, it's not finished yet. You keep your posture still, especially your tongue, take a long breath and listen to how many sounds you make. If it is also a clear tone, then this step is over.

Some students asked,? What should I do if my tongue is used to the right and not to the left? Well, this question is very personal. You can take the piano in reverse, so that the treble is on the left and the bass is on the right. Q:? Does holding the piano in turn have an effect on future practice? Well, the old fairy thinks it doesn't matter. This is how the Japanese polyphonic harmonica master, Mr Saito Koike, plays the piano. This student may become a master of polyphonic harmonica in China in the future if he practices hard.

Another classmate asked:? How many holes does it have? Well, start with five holes and practice until nine holes. . This process takes a long time. Don't worry, take your time.

Step 3 Pronunciation

Review the previous lessons before practicing pronunciation. You have finished the first two steps, so start practicing pronunciation now. (There are two students whispering below, saying that Laoxian is not in a vocal class, why should he practice his pronunciation? These two students will punish you for coming out to practice 100 times). Be quiet! We began to practice the alto scale.

Aim your right corner of your mouth at the 24-hole polyphonic 10 hole, hold the piano, block the left hole and start playing? Do what? And then what? re？ Blowing gently is doing, inhaling gently is heating. Some students are getting restless again. Other teachers and textbooks all talk about playing do from the ninth hole. Why did Lao Xian say to start with the tenth hole? Take it easy, this is the uniqueness of the old immortal religion. When students begin to practice, you may not realize whether your right corner of your mouth is a hole or two holes, nor can you ensure that your tongue position completely blocks the hole on the left, leaving only one hole on the right, so I will teach you to expose the two holes on the right first, which will reduce the difficulty several times. The old fairy is kind, for everyone's consideration, and students are not allowed to talk about the old fairy privately.

Ok, move the piano one space. Breathe in re gently first, then blow mi gently, and then move the piano by one square, and mi and fa will be issued.

Two sounds in a group, start practicing, di-re; re-mi； mi-fa； fa-so； so-la； The piano moves two squares, and the sound is ti-do. Pay attention to this place. The arrangement of the three sounds la-ti-do is different from other sounds, so be careful. .

If you want to play a complete scale, that's it. Hit di-re first, move mi-fa two squares at a time, then move so-la two squares, and then move ti-do two squares (this time, suck first and then blow). Don't move the piano while playing at first, move two squares at a time.

Some students asked:? Why bother? This can better cultivate the sense of hole spacing, reduce mispronunciations, and practice clean single tones as soon as possible, laying a solid foundation for practicing octave harmony in the future. . Despite your high level, it is difficult to know exactly whether the two holes in your mouth are mi/fa or fa/so. You can only train for a long time to develop a feeling, which is what we call-? Sense of hole spacing? Don't be afraid, classmates, especially female students.

Ok, that's enough for the single-tone practice of porous method today. Please practice hard. Students who haven't practiced before must practice bass accompaniment for at least 7749 days. Bass accompaniment is another important part of polyphonic harmonica.

Please don't be afraid of the cold, take your hand out of your pocket and applaud the old fairy. Those who think the old fairy made a mistake will throw two salted duck eggs.

Beginners, like walking, climb first, then stand, and then start stagger. I don't know how many times I fell on my ass and climbed up.

As a harmonica lover who once fell "black and blue", I dare to say something that is not in the textbook in order to make beginners take fewer detours.

1. Practice the old-fashioned single-tone playing method;

The so-called old-fashioned single-tone playing method is just a relatively polyphonic harmonica. Broadly speaking, it is a new way of playing.

Many beginners often ignore the first lesson, know the scale and play 1234567, so they are eager to enter the next lesson, but they don't know that this is the base of a towering building. You called 123. Did you blow 123 clean? You blew clean 123, but you blew soft 123? Beginners are advised not to take it as the first lesson, but to practice it as the most important lesson, especially the bass and treble. Practice 567 1. 1765 more. The pitches of the four notes are different, but the distance is the same. Don't be close to anyone and don't alienate anyone. This is very important for playing 16 notes in the future. Because it plays very fast.

2. About the new single tone and accompaniment;

New tone, also known as porous method. How many holes are there? If you want to blow the polyphonic harmonica "Tang Qiang" thick, of course, there must be deep content, but what about beginners?

Teacher Yang Jiaxiang requires students to have five holes in their mouths in the teaching of the new monosyllabic gameplay, which is contrary to the method of having seven holes or deep holes in the mouths of many textbooks. Think about it carefully and have an epiphany! Lao Yang's method is very scientific and humanized.

In other words, students can easily exercise the flexibility of their tongues, master the formation of "Tang Qiang", and avoid the "frog's mouth" of beginners due to too deep content. After students learned to relax their tongues through a period of practice, they were immediately asked to practice octave harmony, and there were nine holes in their mouths. The teaching concept of the elderly can be described as the best interpretation of "from shallow to deep"! This reminds me that if I had listened to Lao Yang more than 20 years ago, I wouldn't have caused four deep grooves in my mouth for three years.

I hope beginners can accept my lesson. As long as you master the method of playing Qiang, after a period of practice, the thick accompaniment will naturally overflow from your piano!

Speaking of accompaniment, let's talk about the tongue first. The new monosyllabic tone is characterized by covering the piano lattice with the tongue, revealing one or two holes. Where should the tongue cover the piano box? Not in the book. Some people say before using the tongue, others say using the side of the tongue. So what? Let it go first.

Friends who play octave chords often encounter out-of-tune problems for two reasons: 1. Mouth not wide enough, 2. The position of the tongue deviates from the center. In the latter case, try to cover the middle with the tip of your tongue and the problem will be solved. At a higher level, friends who play octave chords often encounter that the tongue movements are always out of sync with the piano's pushing and pressing, so try to cover the parts that should be covered with the tip of the tongue. The flexibility of the tongue cover is higher than that of other parts. In order to correct this, I took advantage of my business trip to visit the bookstore in my city. Finally, a friend of Junbo found a document published by Shi's predecessor in Beijing Library 1957, in which a paragraph described this point: "..... move the tip of the tongue to the left lip to cover the wooden lattice of the flat bass part of the harmonica (that is, remove the tip of the tongue), which will lay a good foundation for future advancement.

3. Play the melody of music;

Any playing skill serves the main theme. In one post, a friend named "dannycheong" called on the new generation to abandon accompaniment and practice the main theme. I don't want to discuss whether this friend's formulation is correct, but "practice the main theme."

This suggestion is to the point. There are more than ten kinds of accompaniment techniques for polyphonic harmonica, which can be mastered within one year. But it is difficult to integrate into the interpretation of music. The main theme is the root, and various accompaniment techniques are the foundation. Both are indispensable. Of course, if there is a band accompaniment,

It's another matter. I hope that beginners should never neglect the practice of melody, especially the treatment of phrases, while practicing accompaniment skills. It is very important to raise your hand at the end of every phrase on the keyboard and leave a message at the end of every phrase on the harmonica!

Finally, I give two suggestions to the new laptop: 1. It is not easy to practice the piano for too long every day, but it is not focused after a long time; 2. If possible, practice lying on the bed for 40 minutes before going to bed, blowing gently, pouting for 20 minutes and playing new notes for 20 minutes. Be sure to play your familiar melody without accompaniment. In this way, you can experience the source of breath, get familiar with the location of sound, relax your brain and fall asleep easily, killing two birds with one stone!

These are some of my personal experiences and shortcomings, please forgive me! I wish my friends progress!