Harmonica

FIRST, if you need a harmonica, please visit my "HARMONICAS for sale" page.  The reference standard for beginning players is a 10-hole diatonic instrument in the key of C:
www.modernbluesharmonica.com/buy_harmonicas.html
If you want the exact make and model of harmonica that I play, hit this icon and you'll be taken to a page at Musician's Friend where you can buy it at a solid discount:

SECOND, if you aren't already familiar with my teaching style, please take ten minutes and watch the following FREE video--one that I uploaded to YouTube back in 2008 as an enticement to beginners.  It moves very quickly, sketching out the world of chords, melodies, and techniques that you will enter if you join me by purchasing the more leisurely and sequenced series of videos below.  Don't let it scare you!  I'm just trying to put a lot of cards on the table and give you a sense of the journey that lies ahead:

THIRD, think about purchasing my BEGINNERS SPECIAL, a collection of four essential videos for beginners, with tabs thrown in for free.  They come as one easy-to-download zip file.  You can reach the purchase page by clicking the link below.  (And while you're at it, scroll to the bottom of the page that the link takes you to and look at the five-star raves from other beginners who have purchased the package and delighted in their own progress):
www.tradebit.com/filedetail.php/2819718-mbh-beginners-special-zip
It you'd rather start out with a bigger bang for a few more bucks, try my BEGINNERS DELUXE.  It includes all the materials in the Beginners Special plus the following videos, tabs, and jam tracks described below:
     §Raw Beginners Start Here (video)
     §Oh Susanna (video + tab)
     §Counting and Playing 12-bar Blues (video + tab)
     §Blues Harmonica Playalong Sessions (jam tracks + one-hour video on how to use them)
The Beginners Deluxe is a $48 value; I offer it for only $35, significantly less than comparable packages by other internet blues harp teachers
www.tradebit.com/filedetail.php/178510802-mbh-beginners-deluxe

FOURTH, if you'd like to dip your finger in the pond rather than plunging in, you might want to pick up one of the following videos and/or tabs for raw beginners.  EVERY VIDEO requires no more than one harmonica in the key of C:
   "Raw Beginners Start Here":  For absolute novices.  If you were my private student and you showed up for your first lesson with a harmonica that you'd just purchased (or that somebody had just given you), I'd spend most of our first hour together showing you the basics:  How the harmonica is put together; how to hold the harp; how to play single notes; how to play your first scale; and how to troubleshoot several basic problems that raw beginners always confront.
     Video:  http://www.tradebit.com/filedetail.php/9117812-raw-beginners-start-here-mov

   "Oh Susanna":  a classic American folk song, adapted for harp.
    Video: www.tradebit.com/filedetail.php/2562615-Documents-eBooks-Music-Tutorials
    Tab (free!): www.tradebit.com/filedetail.php/2562616-Documents-eBooks-Music-Tutorials

   "Floyd's Hotel":  a 12-bar blues adapted from the J. Geils Band:
     video:  www.tradebit.com/filedetail.php/1727197
     tab:  www.tradebit.com/filedetail.php/1727190
  "Shuffle Blues Rhythm":  the basic chord rhythm, one that the pros use:
    Video: www.tradebit.com/filedetail.php/1728311
    Tab: www.tradebit.com/filedetail.php/1728312
   "Stompin'":   This lesson is especially good for those beginners who have trouble keeping the beat through the 12-bar blues changes
    video: www.tradebit.com/filedetail.php/1728632
    tab: www.tradebit.com/filedetail.php/1728633

   "Same Old Blues":  an excellent workout for developing players who don't bend much (or at all) and want to play something that is recognizably a blues.
    Video: www.tradebit.com/filedetail.php/1747808
    Tab: www.tradebit.com/filedetail.php/1747809

   "Bending the 4 Draw":  For most beginners, the 4 draw bend is easiest--and therefore the first that I've always introduced to my students.  This video offers a wealth of tips, metaphors, and suggestions to get you bending and bending well.
    Video:  www.tradebit.com/filedetail.php/2724535-Documents-eBooks-Music-Tutorials
    Tab:  www.tradebit.com/filedetail.php/2724536-Documents-eBooks-Music-Tutorials
[NOTE:  If you want to supercharge your bends on all three crucial holes--2, 3, and 4 draw--you should visit my dedicated bending page]
  "Counting and Playing Your Way Through a 12-Bar Blues":  an extra-long (45+ minutes) and extra-important lesson for beginning players.  In response to popular demand, I've done my best to demystify the 12-bar blues format and help you navigate your way through a foundational experience.  This lesson contains one video and two FREE tab sheets!
   Harp key:  A and C
   Video + tabs: www.tradebit.com/filedetail.php/3116406-Documents-eBooks-Music-Tutorials
   "Tongue Blocking I":  An introduction to one of the key techniques for blues harmonica players--the one that gives you the "big sound," including octaves, splits (such as the 25 draw), counter-rhythms, and a range of textural effects.
    Harp key:  C
    Video:  http://www.tradebit.com/filedetail.php/213859002-tongue-blocking-i-mov


FIFTH, you'll need some jam tracks so you can take the licks and grooves I teach you and begin to put them into action.  The jam tracks I offer feature a whole band in a music-minus-one format.  You can find them HERE:
   www.tradebit.com/filedetail.php/4537012-blues-harmonica-play-along-sessions-zip
SIXTH, if there's one book I'd recommend to beginners, it's Harmonica for Dummies by my longtime friend, Winslow Yerxa.  Winslow isn't just a great player, but he's been teaching the harmonica at a very high level for a long time.  Back in the early 1990s, as the publisher of a newsletter issued by his Harmonica Information Press, he was tabbing out Jon Popper's ridiculously fast solos--one of the many ways in which he served the harmonica community.  He is currently the president of SPAH:  The Society for the Preservation and Advancement of the Harmonica
SEVENTH, you may well have some additional questions.  Please check out my Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) page:
   www.modernbluesharmonica.com/blues_harp_FAQs.html
EIGHTH, when you're ready to move on and up from the beginner's lessons to the harder stuff, please visit the Store, where all of my digital lessons--beginner, advanced beginner, intermediate, and advanced intermediate--are listed in order of increasing difficulty.
NINTH, and lastly, if you know by now that blues harmonica fascinates you and you want a low-cost megadose of information and ear candy to start you on your journey, think about purchasing this extended (one hour and 45 minute) interview that I sat for with David Barrett of BluesHarmonica.com.  It consists of twenty 7-10 minute videos that cover every element of the instrument, including my own journey from where YOU are standing to where I presently stand as a working pro.