How easy is it to learn the harmonica?

The ten-hole diatonic harmonica is a relatively easy instrument to start making basic music with. However, it’s common misconception that it can be completely mastered in a matter of weeks. Beware any instructional material that tries to sell you that promise! 

In fact, as with any other instrument, playing the harmonica to a high standard can take years of practice. But mainly, it’s a lot of fun! Learning the harmonica is a hugely rewarding journey, and one that opens up a wealth of musical possibilities.

Jonathan Prestidge, formerly of The Harmonica Company, shares his experience and insights on learning this deceptively complex instrument.

Is the harmonica easy to learn?

When we learn an instrument, we’re often told a similar message – practise, practise, practise, then practise some more. But some instruments seem to offer more in terms of delivering a return on your time investment than others. Which brings us to the harmonica, and a couple of commonly asked questions on harp forums – exactly how difficult is it to play, and how much return does it give you on your time spent learning to play it.

Transferable skills

The first thing to say, perhaps, is that being competent in other instruments before taking up the harmonica definitely speeds up initial progress. Once I’d worked out a major scale in the first position, for example, I could play simple tunes straight away. In this respect, it’s relatively intuitive to anyone who’s played a keyboard or piano.

Compared to playing the guitar, the harmonica appears to be quite straightforward. Then you find you need to produce a note outside of the major scale, and suddenly things aren’t quite so easy. Bending notes on the guitar is the work of a few hours’ practice; bending notes on the harmonica involves attempting a variety of oral gymnastics with seemingly little effect on the note’s pitch. Then repeating, ad infinitum, with no obvious improvement.

Like all skills, though, progression never maps as a nice smooth gradient of continual improvement; it’s more like the odd, sudden “Eureka!” moment. Persist, however, and before long you’ll make the leap.

Comparison with other instruments

In terms of difficulty, I would say that this isn’t quite comparable with the trickier aspects of piano, such as coordinating left and right hands to perform completely different tasks. It’s more akin to the level required on the guitar to move seamlessly between chords, with no dead notes sounding and no delay. That is to say, tricky at first, but within reach without having to commit half of your life to practising the technique. 

By this point, you should be able to do a passable imitation of a harmonica player. Enough, at least, to fool the very untrained ear into thinking that you can actually play. Not enough, however, to sound good to anyone who’s a fan of the instrument.

The next stage is being able to play more complicated melodies at speed without hesitation or nasty squealing noises. This is analogous, in many ways, to learning guitar solos; in fact, given the strong connection of both instruments with the blues, the scales used tend to be very similar for many of the most popular pieces of music.
 

Conclusion

So, in answer to the original question – in my view, the harmonica has a less extreme learning curve initially than instruments like the guitar or piano, and, ultimately, is not as hard to reach a reasonable level of competence with. Like all instruments, though, achieving true mastery will take quite an amount of time and energy.

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