The Harmonica
Still very much a beginner at this, but I can already play some fun melodies. Good enough to fool people into thinking I actually know how to play the harmonica. It's a really fun instrument to pick up, and it's relatively easy to get to the point where you can play a recognizable tune. On top of that it's super portable, so I really just put it in my pocket wherever I go these days. There's something about the sound of the harmonica that just makes people happy, especially kids. So a lot of times I'll just go for a walk, sit down on a park bench and noodle around on it a bit. Beats doomscrolling on my phone.
Playing single notes
If you have a harmonica lying around at home and you don't know how to approach it, here's the basics. First of all, you need to figure out how to play single notes. Most regular harmonicas are what's called "diatonic harmonicas in Richter tuning". That means that they can play 19 notes on 10 holes. There's two notes on each hole, one draw note and one blow note (One of the notes is on there twice, so it's 19 notes, not 20). If you just blow into the harmonica, you'll get a mix of several blow notes, that is to say a chord. It sounds nice, but it won't get you to playing anything recognizable. For that you'll have to learn to target a single hole. You need to pick what's called your embouchoure, your technique to narrow the flow of air into a single hole. There's a couple basic ways to do that: Puckering, U-blocking and Tongue-blocking.
Puckering:
I've never tried to learn it myself, because from what I've read it's the most limited of the three. It's exactly what it sounds like, you pucker your lips so that only a narrow stream of air escapes and then you blow into or draw from a hole, kinda like whistling.
U-blocking:
The one I use most of the time. Easier to do if you have the tongue-rolling gene. You roll the tip of your tongue into a U-shape and then put your tongue onto the harmonica. This way it's relatively easy to direct the stream of air, so you can focus on actually finding the right notes.
Tongue-blocking:
Instead of making a U with your tongue, you put your mouth on the harmonica as if you were to play a chord, but then you block every hole except for one in the corner of your mouth, usually the right corner. So the tip of your tongue ends up lying flat over two or three holes, leaving only one hole open for the stream of air to move through it. It's important that you get a good seal with your lips for this to work, otherwise the air will escape to the sides, muddying the sound. This technique is probably the hardest of the three, but it's worthwile to learn because it opens up the possibility of learning more advanced techniques later on (specifically playing chords along with the melody), especially for playing folk music.
Tabs
Now that you know how to get single notes out of your harmonica it's just a matter of practice. If you have never really played an instrument before (like me), it's easier to start with tabs. No worries though, you won't really have to learn any music theory at this point. Tabs look like this:
4 4 4 3 5 5 5 4 4 5 6 6 -5 5 -4
You might have noticed that your harmonica (most likely) has the numbers 1-10 engraved on it. Every hole corresponds to two notes, so each number can represent one of two notes. There are some competing systems online, but most of the time a minus before the number means "draw" and the number by itself means "blow". Sometimes a plus is used to denote a "blow", then it's the other way around. You might also find tabs that have something like (5) or '5 in them. The first one can mean either that the note is optional, or that it is played just very briefly. The second refers to a more advanced technique called "bending", which I won't go into here.
And that's basically all you need to start playing some simple tunes. After a while you'll figure out how to play by ear and you won't even need tabs anymore.
Have fun with it! 🎶
The tabs above are the first part
of "Oh my Darling Clementine".