When deciding which instrument to learn it can be tempting to stick with the basics: guitar, keyboard, or drums, which are all great options, don’t get me wrong. But why not branch out and try something more unique, like the harmonica.

The harmonica is a perfect beginner instrument for budding musicians of all ages.

In fact, there are many benefits that playing the harmonica can offer, let’s discuss a few of them. 

Easy To Learn

If you are new to music and want to start off simple, the harmonica could be the perfect beginner instrument for you.

As is evident by its size there aren't a lot of complicated parts to a harmonica, there is only the harmonica itself, your mouth, and your hands. This makes it an easy instrument to learn how to play.

Once you start playing you will find that it is easy to pick up and isn’t at all as intimidating as it seems. 

You may be wondering if it’s so simple, won’t it get boring? The answer is definitely not! 

While the harmonica is easy to pick up, there are also a range of more advanced manoeuvres and playing techniques that you can learn down the track. This ensures that you will never get bored with this instrument and will constantly be challenging yourself.

Health Benefits

Not only is the harmonica fun to play, but it also offers a wide range of health benefits. The most notable health benefit that the harmonica can offer is the strong positive impact it has on strengthening your respiratory system and teaching you how to control your breathing. 

Other health benefits include:

• Enhancing your memory;
• Increasing coordination;
• And helping relieve stress and anxiety.

Builds Confidence

Learning a new skill, particularly a unique skill can highly increase your self confidence as you will feel a strong sense of accomplishment when you succeed. 

The great thing about the harmonica is that as stated earlier it is simple to learn, meaning you will pick it up quickly. It is also hard to play a note that sounds terrible. This makes it an ideal instrument for boosting your confidence levels and sense of accomplishment. 

Teaches Transferable Skills

The harmonica is a great gateway instrument into the world of woodwind and brass instruments. While they are seemingly different in almost every way, the breathing control is the same.

Once you have learnt and mastered the art of controlling your inhalation and exhalation strength on the harmonica, you will be able to transfer that skill to a variety of woodwind and brass instruments and increase your musical repertoire.

Can Play Any Song

Harmonicas are diatonic instruments making them easier to improvise on. If your harmonica and the song you are trying to play are both in the key of C, it will be almost impossible to play a bad or off key note. 

This same notion applies to playing with other instruments, such as the guitar or drums. It is always simple to jam with others, if you have a harmonica. 

In saying this though, there are obviously some rare cases where it can be hard to find the specific key or note, but as you become more familiar with the instrument and learn more advanced techniques it will become even easier to match any note and key. 

Feel the Music

Harmonicas are highly melodic instruments, so you will hear and feel each note more prominently as you play it. This is one of the things that make it such a great instrument for beginners. 

Harmonica players tend to have more respect for individual notes than musicians who play other instruments, because they are able to hear and feel each note individually rather than just as a part of a string of notes or as part of a chord. Being able to hear and feel notes both as part of a chord and on their own is important and something that you will learn as you gain more experience playing instruments. 

Once you start to feel every note as you play it you’ll start to understand how each note feels and sounds and differentiate them easily. This will in turn make it easier to find and match melodies of songs and make you a better musician on the harmonica and all other instruments.  

Compact

One of the best things about the harmonica is its compact size, which makes it easy for you to bring it with you anywhere.

A guitarist or pianist can’t easily pack up their guitar and put it in their pocket, but you can fit a harmonica in your pocket. So you can play it almost anywhere at any time. 

Our Range

If you’re convinced to try out the harmonica we can help you get started. We stock a wide range of diatonic and blues harmonicas in a range of keys. 

Just one of our great harmonicas is the Lee Oskar Diatonic Harmonica - Key of C. It is ready tuned in the C key, making it easy for you to play along with almost any song. This harmonica also has stainless steel cover plates making it corrosion resistant. 

This harmonica, and many of our others, are highly responsive with great tone that make it easy to bend notes and create unique and bigger sounds. 

Explore our range of harmonicas online or visit our professional musicians in our store in Nambour to check out our instruments for yourself.