How to play single clean notes on harmonica

Here are some tips from people who are struggling to consistently play clean single notes on harmonica.

Use 2 hands

In loads of my videos you will see me just playing the harmonica with one hand.  If you watch loads of other harmonica teachers they also play one-handed sometimes however, this is not the best way to do it. The reason I play with one hand is so that I have the other hand free to conduct you guys either by clicking my fingers or showing you which direction I am playing in.

If you play with 2 hands you get a lot more control over the position of the harmonica which leads to playing more accurately which in turn leads to playing more consistently clean notes.

Keep the harmonica parallel

I see a lot of people playing the harmonica at all sorts of weird angles which makes it quite hard to play clean single notes. If you have your mouth at a weird angle to the harmonica then you can quite often end up with your mouth open over more than one hole.

If you keep the harmonica parallel it means that when you move your hands, your mouth/harmonica relationship always remains the same so once you have a good clean embouchure your notes will consistently sound good without extraneous notes popping in from the neighbouring holes.

Thanks for checking out this lesson. If you’re looking for information about how to play the 2 hole draw cleanly just click here – how to play a clean 2 hole draw.