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Harmonica
The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica include diatonic, chromatic, tremolo, octave, orchestral, and bass versions. A harmonica is played by using the lips and tongue to direct air into or out of one (or more) holes along a mouthpiece (which covers one edge of the harmonica for most of its length). Behind each hole is a chamber containing at least one reed. The most common type of harmonica is a diatonic Richter-tuned instrument with ten air passages and twenty reeds, often called a blues harp. A harmonica reed is a flat, elongated spring typically made of brass, stainless steel, or bronze, which is secured at one end over a slot that serves as an airway. When the free end is made to vibrate by the player's air, the reed alternately blocks and unblocks the airway to produce soun ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bending Notes
There are numerous techniques available for playing the harmonica, including bending, overbending, and tongue blocking. Bending and other techniques In addition to the 19 (draw 2 and blow 3 are the same pitch even though there are 10 holes) notes readily available on the diatonic harmonica, players can play other notes by adjusting their embouchure and forcing the reed to resonate at a different pitch. Although it is notoriously difficult and can be frustrating for beginners, one does this by relaxing and coordinating muscles in the throat, mouth, and lips. This technique is called "bending", a term borrowed from guitarists, who literally "bend" a string in order to create changes in pitch. Using bending, a player can reach all the notes on the chromatic scale. "Bending" also creates the glissando characteristic of much blues harp and country harmonica playing. Bending on a guitar bends the pitch upward. However, typically "bending" on a harmonica means the pitch falls downward. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blues Harp
The Richter-tuned harmonica, 10-hole harmonica (in Asia) or blues harp (in America), is the most widely known type of harmonica. It is a variety of diatonic scale, diatonic harmonica, with ten holes which offer the player 19 notes (10 holes times a draw and a blow for each hole minus one repeated note) in a three-octave range. The standard diatonic harmonica is designed to enable playing chords and melody in a single key. Because of this design, playing in different keys requires the player to have a separate instrument for each key they play in. Harps labeled G, A, A, B or B start (on hole 1 blow) below middle C, while those labeled D through F start above middle C (C4). Here is the layout for a standard diatonic harmonica, labeled C, starting on middle C (C4): :: Although there is a three-octave distance between 1 and 10 "blow", there is only one full major scale available on the harmonica, using holes 4 through 7. The lower holes are designed around the tonic chord, tonic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richter-tuned Harmonica
The Richter-tuned harmonica, 10-hole harmonica (in Asia) or blues harp (in America), is the most widely known type of harmonica. It is a variety of diatonic harmonica, with ten holes which offer the player 19 notes (10 holes times a draw and a blow for each hole minus one repeated note) in a three-octave range. The standard diatonic harmonica is designed to enable playing chords and melody in a single key. Because of this design, playing in different keys requires the player to have a separate instrument for each key they play in. Harps labeled G, A, A, B or B start (on hole 1 blow) below middle C, while those labeled D through F start above middle C (C4). Here is the layout for a standard diatonic harmonica, labeled C, starting on middle C (C4): :: Although there is a three-octave distance between 1 and 10 "blow", there is only one full major scale available on the harmonica, using holes 4 through 7. The lower holes are designed around the tonic (C major) and dominant (G m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chromatic Harmonica
The chromatic harmonica is a type of harmonica that uses a button-activated sliding bar to redirect air from the hole in the mouthpiece to the selected reed-plate desired. When the button is not pressed, an altered diatonic major scale of the key of the harmonica is available, while depressing the button accesses the same scale a semitone higher in each hole. Thus, the instrument is capable of playing the 12 notes of the Western chromatic scale. The chromatic harmonica can thus be contrasted with a standard harmonica, which can play only the notes in a given musical key. Famously accomplished chromatic harmonica players include classical players Larry Adler, Tommy Reilly, Antonio Serrano, Sigmund Groven, and Willi Burger; jazz players Toots Thielemans, Mathias Heise, Gregoire Maret, Yvonnick Prene, Hendrik Meurkens, and William Galison; and popular musicians Norton Buffalo and Stevie Wonder. Chromatic harmonicas are usually 12, 14 or 16 holes long. The 12-hole chromatic i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tremolo Harmonica
A tremolo harmonica is a type of diatonic harmonica, distinct by having two reeds per note. In a tremolo harmonica, the two reeds are tuned slightly off a reference pitch, one slightly sharp and the other slightly flat. This gives a unique wavering or warbling sound created by the two reeds being not exactly in tune with each other and difference in their subsequent waveforms acting against one another. The degree of beating can be varied depending on the desired effect. Instruments where the beating is faster due to the reeds being farther apart from the reference pitch are called "wet", whereas those where the beating is slower and less noticeable due to the reeds being more closely in tune are called "dry". Tremolo distinction "Tremolo" is most often defined as a periodic change of volume (sometimes incorrectly defined as a change in pitch, strictly vibrato). Most orchestral instruments achieve this effect by repeated playing of a single note. The tremolo harmonica achieves ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Diatonic And Chromatic
Diatonic and chromatic are terms in music theory that are used to characterize Scale (music), scales. The terms are also applied to musical instruments, Interval (music), intervals, Chord (music), chords, Musical note, notes, musical styles, and kinds of harmony. They are very often used as a pair, especially when applied to contrasting features of the Common practice period, common practice music of the period 1600–1900. These terms may mean different things in different contexts. Very often, ''diatonic'' refers to musical elements derived from the modes and transpositions of the "white note scale" C–D–E–F–G–A–B. In some usages it includes all forms of heptatonic scale that are in common use in Western music (the major, and all forms of the minor). ''Chromatic'' most often refers to structures derived from the chromatic scale in 12-tone equal temperament, which consists of all semitones. Historically, however, it had other senses, referring in Ancient Greek mus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blues
Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballad (music), ballads from the African-American culture. The blues form is ubiquitous in jazz, rhythm and blues, and rock and roll, and is characterized by the Call and response (music), call-and-response pattern, the blues scale, and specific chord progressions, of which the twelve-bar blues is the most common. Blue notes (or "worried notes"), usually thirds, fifths or sevenths flattened in Pitch (music), pitch, are also an essential part of the sound. Blues shuffle note, shuffles or walking bass reinforce the trance-like rhythm and form a repetitive effect known as the groove (popular music), groove. Blues music is characterized by its lyrics, Bassline, bass lines, and Instrumentation (music), instrumen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of Harmonicists
This is a list of musicians that are notable for their harmonica The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica incl ... playing skills. Harmonica bands/groups *Borrah Minevitch, Borrah Minevitch and his Harmonica Rascals *Morton Fraser's Harmonica Gang *The Harmonica Gentlemen *Jerry Murad's Harmonicats *Johnny Puleo's Harmonica Gang *King's College Harmonica Band *Sväng *The Three Monarchs Blues *Adam Gussow (Satan and Adam) *Aki Kumar *Alan Glen *Annie Raines *Alan Wilson (musician), Alan Wilson (Canned Heat) *Big Mama Thornton *Big Walter Horton *Bill Dicey *Billy Bizor *Billy Boy Arnold *Billy Branch *Huey Lewis and the News, Billy Gibson *Blind Mississippi Morris *Bob Corritore *Bonny B. *Captain Beefheart *Carey Bell *Carlos del Junco *Charlie Musselwhite *Charlie Sayles *Chr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Country Music
Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is primarily focused on singing Narrative, stories about Working class in the United States, working-class and blue-collar worker, blue-collar American life. Country music is known for its ballads and dance tunes (i.e., "Honky-tonk#Music, honky-tonk music") with simple form, folk lyrics, and harmonies generally accompanied by instruments such as banjos, fiddles, harmonicas, and many types of guitar (including acoustic guitar, acoustic, electric guitar, electric, steel guitar, steel, and resonator guitar, resonator guitars). Though it is primarily rooted in various forms of American folk music, such as old-time music and Appalachian music, many other traditions, including African-American, Music of Mexico, Mexican, Music of Ireland, Irish, and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Melodica
The melodica is a handheld free-reed instrument similar to a pump organ or harmonica. It features a musical keyboard on top, and is played by blowing air through a mouthpiece that fits into a hole in the side of the instrument. The keyboard usually covers two or three octaves. Melodicas are small, lightweight, and portable, and many are designed for children to play. They are popular in music education programs, especially in Asia. The modern form of the instrument was invented by Hohner in the late 1950s, though similar instruments have been known in Italy since the 19th century. Description The mouthpiece can be a short rigid or semi-flexible plastic piece or a long flexible plastic tube (designed to allow the player to either hold the keyboard so the keys can be seen or lay the keyboard horizontally on a flat surface for two-handed playing). A foot pump can also be used as an alternative to breathing into the instrument. Melodica keyboards typically ascend from a low F not ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mouth Organ
A mouth organ is any free reed aerophone with one or more air chambers fitted with a free reed. Though it spans many traditions, it is played universally the same way by the musician placing their lips over a chamber or holes in the instrument, and blowing or sucking air to create a sound. Many of the chambers can be played together or each individually. The mouth organ can be found all around the world and is known by many different names and seen in many different traditions. The most notable variations include the harmonica, and Asian free reed wind instruments consisting of a number of bamboo pipes of varying lengths fixed into a wind chest; these include the ''sheng'', ''khaen'', '' lusheng'', ''yu'', ''shō'', and '' saenghwang''. The melodica, consisting of a single tube that is essentially blown through a keyboard, is another variation. Gallery File:Cass-muha-1880.jpg, C. A. Seydel Söhne Harmonica (1880) File:Mouth organ (or symphonium) (c.1830, London) by Charle ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
