The best harmonica
All you Need to Know About Harmonicas
Harmonicas come in different brands, shapes and sizes. The harmonicas featured here are divided into five groups: toy, budget, intermediate, premium and custom. We will highlight only a representative range of harmonica models. Players are usually passionate about their chosen brand (as they should be). Here we’ll just learn a few facts about harmonicas.
What are the various harmonica types ?
The Diatonic blues harp : The standard 10 hole harmonica that has been originally mostly used in blues (Little walter, Sonny boy williamson), country music (Charlie Mc coy), folk (bob dylan) has recently become more versatile thanks to the overblow technique that makes it chromatic and able to be used for other genres like celtic / irish music (Brendan Power), Jazz (Howard Levy) or any type of world music.
Chromatic harmonica : Invented later than the diatonic the chromatic naturally gives the player all the notes thanks to a slider. It made its way in classical music (Larry Adler), Jazz (Toots Thielemans, Gregoire Maret), and Pop music (Stevie wonder) but is also used a bit in blues (Carey Bell). The standard chromatic harmonica has 12 holes and 48 notes like the Hohner Chromonica 270, Hohner CX-12 black, Suzuki SCX48, Seydel Saxony, Harmo Angel 12. There are also some 14 hole models : Hohner Meisterklasse, Suzuki Sirius 56 and a good choice of 16 hole 64 notes full 4 octave models like the Hohner Chromonica 280, Hohner Super 64, Suzuki SCX64 and Sirius 64, Harmo Admiral 64, Harmo Angel 16 and the Seydel Symphony.
Traditional : The tremolo and octave harmonicas are those old timer harmonicas that double each note to produce a sweet tremolo or octave effect. They don’t have as many notes available as the diatonic or chromatic and are usually used for simple traditional melodies. Hohner echo harp and Suzuki SU-21H are some of the best models.
What are The Best Harmonica Brands?
Like alluded to earlier, Harmonicas come in all shapes, sizes and brands; but the biggest brands are: the German Hohner, another German Seydel, the Japanese Suzuki, The Japanese brand Tombo (Lee Oskar) and the new American brand Harmo. Of these, Hohner is probably the most famous. However, if you want to become a serious player you have to try out a wide array of harmonicas from different brands, and in various keys to see which ones suit your playing style.
Which Are The Best Harmonicas For Beginners?
For diatonic we recommend Hohner Special 20 and Golden melody, Seydel Session Steel, Lee Oskar, Suzuki Bluesmaster and Harmo Polar Harmonica for beginners. Those 10 hole diatonic harmonica models in the key of C have a plastic comb of good sound quality that is easy to get a sound out of it with a good reed response. Reeds and reedplates are made of copper, phosphore bronze or stainless steel and are great for beginners. The metal covers on either side makes it very light. They usually come in a durable, hard shell carrying case or even better a zip pouch and they are very affordable.
We don’t recommend or sell toy Harmonicas like the Hohner Happy Color harmonica intended for children because the quality is very poor and you will most likely have to buy a better model just a few weeks after you got started. We recommend getting off the right foot with a good model that you will keep longer and that will play much better and allow you to learn all the harmonica techniques : plucking, tongue blocking, bending, overblows, hand effects …
This Post Is Originally Published Here: https://harmonicaland.com/en/blog/post/5/the-best-harmonica?page_type=post
