Page 2 - Method intro edit

2) Breathing Through The Harmonica

You play harmonica by ‘blowing’ and ‘drawing’ notes. You are ‘blowing’ a note
when you exhale through the harmonica and ‘drawing’ the note when you
inhale through it. So, the first thing to do is learn to breathe in and out of the
harmonica naturally.

Put the harmonica deep into your mouth. Try to make sure your lips cover the
top and bottom of the harmonica plates to make it airtight. At first, you will

probably notice you’re breathing through two or three holes – so, playing two
or three notes – at the same time, so let’s go with that for this first exercise.

A quick note about the tab sheets: The numbers indicate which hole or holes
to play. If the numbers are written above the line, you draw them, if they are
written under the line, you blow them.

So, in the first example, place your lips across holes 1,2 and 3 and then draw
in twice, before moving your lips along to holes 2,3 and 4 and drawing in

twice, and so on.

2.1

(123)(123) (234)(234) Repeat

(234)(234) (234)(234)

2.2

(123) (234) (123)

(234) (234)