My Harmonica Story

I was about nine years old when I first picked up a harmonica. My brother, who was three years older, have always inspired me in what he plays with. Whether it’s Table Tennis, Chinese chess, flute, and so on, I have always thought it should be fun to copy him. And so I started playing the diatonic harmonica. In the beginning, he was happy to show me the way and I slowly picked up the basics. I even played the same songs, but over time, he started to keep stuff for himself and I have to go on my own.

By the time I reached thirteen, I have moved to playing the chromatic harmonica, which is a more advanced instrument as it can play semi-tone notes. I expanded my repertoire into western classical music, and started to learn to play solo with accompaniment pieces. I am never as good as my brother, but I still emulate him and learn (or stole the scores of) the same pieces he played. And when I got older, I even followed the same path as him, joining harmonica band in schools and even in the university. Due to our age gap, we never have the chance to be in the same harmonica band even though we went to the same schools (another copying act).

Here is a popular classical music piece that I have recorded while I was in the university playing in a concert: (more than 30 years ago)

Harmonica is a very special musical instrument. It takes years of practice to really play it well and just minutes to be able to play simple tunes. Compare playing “twinky twinky little star” in violin and harmonica. It is a very versatile instrument, having been used in many genres of music. I feel that it is a very underrated instrument. One only needs to pinch his lips to a small size and then either blow or suck in air from the holes. For kids to learn music, they don’t have to place fingers on certain position on the instrument (like violin) and meddle with intonations, or pay a sum of money for it (like piano). There is (usually) no need to tune the instrument nor much maintenance to be done with it (just rinse it with water). It is an excellent tool for parent-child bonding if the parent wants to use it to teach music (because it is so easy and cheap to learn). Go and buy a basic harmonica and try it.

My two kids play violin and piano (and took examinations to reach advanced diploma and grade 8 levels respectively) and I did not get them onto harmonica because I think the whole family could have some versatility. In fact, when they were learning their instruments, I spend a lot of time to accompany them in their practices (for examinations), giving feedback and encouraging them. This Suzuki-style method certainly help my kids to learn their instrument well and offer excellent parent-child bonding opportunities.

Here is another piece of music I have recorded in the same concert (like the one before). This is a lively Chinese Classical piece written for the violin.

Playing harmonica cultivates my interest in music and I began listening to all sorts of music (including Pop, Classical, Jazz and Chinese Classical). The above song is written for violin and I played it on the harmonica with piano accompaniment by a friend. Cultivating appreciation and skill in music brings lifelong joy. Music can entertain, soothe, pass time, inspire, and do many more things for you like helping you to make new friends. There are harmonica musicians who are professionals (either performing or teaching) and there are also many Youtubers.

After my marriage, I stopped playing harmonica. My professional work life has taken most of my time and I also started my family soon after. But my ears have been trained for harmonica, and I have continued to enjoy both harmonica and other music. When I reached mid fifties, I was worried my music skills would deteriorate and I decided to pick up my instrument again. But now, the situation is different and I no longer can remember the music scores so easily and do not have someone to accompany me. And so I tried a new way of playing, using computer software to display the notes and also to provide the accompaniment. Here is a recent recording with my new harmonica (the sound is almost the same 30 years ago but the notes are much easier to play).

I used Sibelius to record the notes of a piece of music and playback the piano accompaniment. This serves as a background music (in headphones) while I play my harmonica, and record and mixed the music using GarageBand on my mac. For the above song, I asked my son to help arrange the accompaniment. I thoroughly enjoyed playing harmonica again, but I don’t have the time to find the scores of music I like and enter the notes into the computer to allow me to play. I hope there will be new (cloud) services that can cater to folks like me, who can pick a song and play with the accompaniment generated by the service and maybe even publish the recording to Youtube.

This is my harmonica story and how it has been influencing my life. I hope others can learn more about the harmonica and how it can be used to inspire them or enrich their lives.