Choosing a Harmonica

by Christopher Flynn — Thursday, September 03, 2009

Now that I've decided to learn the Harmonica, next came the decision of which one to get. My daughters is ok but it's hers and she rightfully wants to play with it. Secondly, it's a cheap kids toy harmonica, it sounds ok but I'm having trouble trying to bend notes on it and I'm not sure if it's the harmonica or me. (or a little of both) I figure if I spend the $30 on a decent harmonica, I'll at least know it's me.

From what I can gather, there was a time where the best choice was a Marine Band harmonica. It's got a wood comb and sounds great. The problem with the wood comb is that it swells as wood does when it gets wet. Some people swear by it and there are things you can do to help but it seemed like a lot of effort for my first Harmonica so I ruled it out in favor of a newer design with a plastic comb.

That left a bunch of other options, and they are all around the same price point. First there's the Special 20 which seems to be an updated version of the marine band with a plastic comb. It's nice and a lot of people swear by them.

Then there's the Lee Oskar which also comes highly recommended. They are supposed to be a little more durable and all the key components are replaceable.

The Golden Melody has a different shape that looks like it would be a little more comfortable. It also has a lot of rave reviews about it, much like the other harmonica's mentioned. It's said to have a brighter tone to it which is ultimately why I didn't get it as I was looking for something a little more bluesy.

Then there is the Hohner Piedmont Blues Harmonica Set . This is a cheaper set of Harmonica's but contains a bunch of differently keyed harmonicas. It contains 7 different keys: A, Bb, C, D, E, F and G, all for less than the rest of the Harmonica's on this list. I mention it here because I briefly thought about getting this set because they are ok harmonicas but primarily because then I would have most of the keys I would need to play in.

Confused about the keys? Well harmonicas are tuned to certain keys. When you play a song, you typically play in a certain key. The most popular beginner key for harmonica is the key of C major because most beginner lessons assume this. It doesn't matter that much what key you get unless you plan on playing with others which is why I ended up not getting the Piedmont Blues Set as I only intend on playing by myself for a while. I also decided to get my harmonica tuned to C because that seems to be the general consensus for a beginner harmonica.

Finally we come to the Harmonica I actually ordered, the Bushman Delta Frost . Even though the links above go to amazon.com, I actually ordered from cost2coastmusic.com because they are closer to me than the amazon partner store so I would get it sooner and the price difference was negligible, normally I do use amazon but when it comes to partner stores, I sometimes don't... depends on the price and how quickly they could get it to me. I got a notice that it shipped yesterday so hopefully I'll get it before the weekend. I link to the amazon pages because there are some good reviews of each of the Harmonicas so you can read more about them if you want.

So why did I choose the Delta Frost? First, the reeds are made of a copper colored Phosphor Bronze which is supposed to be more durable which I thought would be a good thing since I'm new and will probably abuse the reeds a bit while learning. The reeds are also replaceable so if I do break the reeds, I don't have to buy a new harmonica. They also have a 30 day No-Blow-Out Warranty. The Phosphor Bronze reeds also supposedly give it more of a gritty blues sound. While I'm sure that's subjective and only what I read on a review, it's not the only reason I got this one. It's also supposed to be comparable to the above harmonicas.

So what harmonica should you get? I don't think you can go wrong with any of the ones I list above but if you are a beginner I would try and stay away from the wooden combed marine band as I don't think the issues of swelling wood are worth adding into all the other variables of starting to learn a new instrument. With all these quality harmonica's, it wouldn't even be a horrible thing to pick the one that looks the nicest to you. For me, I'm hoping mine will be air tight and easy to bend.