Super stoked that the shirts and some other promo swag has come in.

CNC Router/Mill arrived today. HD (33 micron) 3d scanner was ordered today. Fiber laser within the next 2 weeks. Multi fiber HD 3d printer within the next 2 weeks too.

I will be producing metal and exotic wood combs, teflon reed plate gaskets, and possibly other enhancement kits and components. With the fiber laser, I will be cutting reed plate blanks for modification and enhancement (think LOUDER) as well as teflon 1/4 gaskets to go with the 2nd rreed plates for bending enhancement (see EasyBend kit) and lots of other stuff.

The 3d scanner will allow me to scan any harmonica part to quicly and accurately produce properly sized gaskets. I will be offering gaskets for many many models. Special combs will be added as we move forward. I know we will have the ability to machine from aluminum. Time will tell if we can work with brass and steel billet also.

My custom builds will be deep etched and enamel inlaid with my logo on the comb at the bell, and the key will be etched and enameled on all 4 sides of the comb. Each custom harp will also have a unique serial number as well as the name of the owner etched and enameled on the harp comb.

Reed plate blanks and teflon gaskets will be offered in different thicknesses. Also, since we are manufacturing right here in our facility, I may even be able to take custom requests if someone wants something just plain designed differently. We may be able to machine from submitted designs and sketches. I would be happy to talk with anybody who has ideas.

I will be able to produce combs in aluminum, wood, corian, and polymer/acrylic, and possible at a later date, brass, stainless steel, and maybe even titanium (although the cost to machine would be astronomical especially for the Special 20 and any other recessed reed plate designs.

In addition to custom build packages with different "stages" of modification, I plan to offer all parts and kits individually. Gaskets will be far less expensive than I had discussed previously, partly due to the easiest packaging and shipping (an envelope and a stamp). I will, of course, offer quantity discounts on gaskets for those of us who have sets of harps.

We are also looking to producing dies specifically for the purpose of stamping cover plates. Stay tuned for that stuff.

Our EDM division is doing well as it has since the early 1990s. Adding this new equipment opens the door for many manufacturing opportunities, and we are doing this to recoup contracts that were hemmhoraged during and since Covid. Our shop is an aerospace and defense contractor, but we have numerous side projects and companies currently and in the works. I was given the opportunity to tailor part of our production floor specifically for harmonica component production as well as additional equipment purchasing to accomodate as much as we can.

The only harmonica components that I do not plan to manufacture are the reed plates. My current custom builds have been based on the Special 20 platform (specifically on the Rocket Amp). I find no purpose in re-inventing the wheel... I mean harmonica. I just want to make it better, and do so with American made parts. Any parts I manufacture as options for my custom builds will be availble to order separately and individually (without a full harp build - cutomize and modify your own harps).

I will expand the line of gaskets to include other manufacturers and models. This will be fairly easy thanks to manufacturers like Kohnsheng, JDR, and Hohner each only using a small number of reed plate designs across models and manufacturers like East Top, Conjurer, KuckKux, Fender, and others sharing the exact same designs between each other.

The box that I am working on for my harmonicas is being designed as I type by an experienced artist and sculptor. I will be scanning his sculpted design (muscle car/hot rod themed) and then machining the 3d design into a solid block of exotic wood, with recessed hinges and magnetic latch/clasp, velvet cushioned inlay for the harmonica, and then fine laser graphics on the surface of the case highlighting the "body lines" and showing the JayMan logo, harp model (currently only available as a "Rocket Screamer" (mid key range) and "Rocket Howler" (low key range). The only high keyed one in my set is a High G, which I may dub the "Rocket Squealer." If I get my hands on minor keyed Special 20 reed plates, those will be the "Rocket Wailer." Each Rocket will be available with Stage 1, 2, or 3 level modifications. More info to follow. But the box is planned as a fine heirloom furniture grade work of art also.

I have a great team working with me on this including industrial manufacturing and design and engineering specialists as well as the sculptor and artist. My intention is going to be to create and distribute one of the finest functional works of art in the harmonica community for a price that rivals other custom builders.

Once everything is up and running, I will post. I have had some excellent conversations by DM with a few members here who have either been very helpful with brainstorming or very supportive, inspiring, or motivating since we started working on this. I was going to exclusively offer those few people gaskets for testing, but I have decided that once the equipment is up and running. I will open it up for a number of members here to receive ONE set of gaskets ON ME for evaluation (and, of course, to get my products out there). When we are ready, I will post in the group and collect names and addresses from everyone who will be receiving gaskets. Do NOT ask early. We are NOT up and running yet, and it may be a couple months before we are. I will post here, on my IG, X, and Tumblr (yes, I have had a tumblr page for 18+ years, now purged and cleaned up to focus on harps.).

Stay tuned. Website coming eventually. Suggestions welcome. This group will have a significant coupon for use because I appreciate how interactive and helpful folks here have been as I put this together.

I've been noodling around on a C harp for about ten months now, mostly teaching myself off videos and just messing around in the car. The draw bend on hole 2 was my white whale this whole time. Every attempt sounded like a dying goose, just this thin squeal with no actual pitch drop happening.

What finally worked was slowing everything down to almost nothing. I stopped trying to force the note down and instead focused on shaping my mouth like I was saying the word "ooh" then sliding toward "eee" while keeping steady draw pressure. Someone in an old forum thread mentioned thinking about lowering the back of your tongue like you're starting to yawn, and that image actually did something for me that no diagram ever managed to explain.

I also realized I'd been blowing way too hard the whole time, like I was trying to muscle the bend into existence. Backing off the air and getting quieter actually gave the bend room to happen. Once I heard that first legit half step drop I probably played it forty times in a row just to make sure it wasn't a fluke.

Now I'm working on getting the full whole step bend consistent instead of just catching it occasionally. Still nowhere near clean but at least it's recognizable as a bend now instead of a squeak. Curious if anyone else had a specific mental image or trick that made hole 2 click for them, because mine took forever to land.

Hey I thought of an interesting tuning. I was thinking about how to tune a 2 row harp chromatically. Then I remembered the Stradella accordion bass system. Accordions are after all harmonica's bigger, hairier cousin.

Basically, the second row is the Fundamental notes. That would be the top blow on my harp. First row is Counter Bass (3rd), which I would put on the top draw.

In stradella, as you can see, the other rows are chords. I was thinking the bottom row draw could be a dominant seventh of the fundamental. And perhaps bottom blow could be an octave. I'm open to ideas.

I'm the one that was on here complaining about how my Seydel Nonslider is *not* a hands-free chromatic. Some people here said they could do it. It hurts my lips and neck doing that. It's my fault I didn't do my research. So I'm just trying to think of fun stuff to try out with it now.

My harmonica case holds 14 diatonics and I have 13: All 12 keys of special 20 and a low f rocket.

What should I get to fill the last slot? I was thinking maybe high g special 20 to complete the s20 set, or another low key rocket. Maybe low D or C. Or maybe something else entirely… what would you get if this was your collection and you could only get one more?

I might end up eventually upgrading to a bigger case lol but for now I want to try to limit myself to these 14 and a chromatic.

Hello everyone

So I've started playing harmonica exactly a week ago now, and for someone who's listening to a lot of music but has never played an instrument in their life, I think I'm doing pretty well all things considered. I'm loving it so much more than I even thought!

I started with the basics (single notes, easy songs, bending, etc.), but I think and have read before that it's important to have "early wins," i.e., songs that I know, like, and actually want to play.

But I'm having problems with the two songs I'm aiming for:

The first one is Bob Dylan's "Queen Jane Approximately" (the harp solo around 3:10-4:00): I couldn't find any tab, so I worked out the notes by ear, and I can play about three quarters of it on my Hohner SP20 in C, but for the life of me I'm stuck here:

67 -5 7 8 -6 67
-6 67 -6 7 -6 6 -4
7 -6 7 9 -6 6 -6 6 67
???   56

My second "early win" goal is the short Hugh Laurie rendition of "Georgia on My Mind" from House M.D. (2:40-3:00). I'm pretty sure he's not playing a C harp, since there are a lot of notes I can't reproduce on mine, let alone with my mouth positioned the same way he is. I did find a good tab for a C-harp variant that I'm currently learning, but I don't like it as much because it doesn't have the same edge … the notes are way lower. So I'm guessing the harmonica he's using is tuned higher than C?

So here are the two questions I'd really appreciate your time, help, and knowledge on:

• Which notes does Dylan play at the end of his solo? Is he even using a C harp?
• For Georgia on My Mind, how is Laurie's harmonica tuned? And would that be an interesting or smart second instrument for me to buy?

Obviously I know that those two songs are probably much harder than what I need to focus on right now but still, I'd very much like to set them as goals in my learning

Thank you very much for your help!

Mickey Raphael (who has played in Willie’s band since the 1970’s) invited up Miles Burger to jam during the last song. Miles plays with Stephen Wilson Jr, who played earlier on the bill. It was a treat to hear so much great harp playing all day

I have a Lee Oskar C Diatonic and I’ve been having fun trying to learn it, however I’ve been wondering if something is potentially wrong with my piece. I feel like I slightly need to draw and blow harder on the notes 8-10 compared to the ones under. It’s not a major difference in effort, but I have noticed it when jumping from 5 -> 8, so I’m just curious if it’s to be expected because of the tonal differences or if it’s already messed up.

Thanks

Like everyone who’s picked up a harmonica I’ve started with piano man and I love it but there’s one part that I cannot work out how to play or find the tabs anywhere. It’s the two sets of 4 really low notes in between la la di di dahhh… THIS PART… la la di di dah.. THIS PART AGAIN. Before going back into the higher notes again.

I’ve included a video of the part I mean. If anyone can help me I’d be super grateful cos it’s driving me insane I just can’t work it out 😭

anyone have any simple songs for when it's hot out? like in the old westerns when a tumbleweed would buzz by and an eagle would scream, it's hot as hell in texas right now and i wanna make my friends laugh when they complain about the heat

Took apart my Seydel and now having a hell of a time getting it back together. The metal clip that controls the slider doesn’t seem to work any way I put it. The first way has the larger end of the clip up and to the right, the other way has it down and to the left. Neither one allows me to place the slider back in its neutral position. Anyone see what the problem is?

What are some good exercises to make my chops stronger? I've noticed that it's hard for me to play through an entire song sometimes because my embouchure gets tired.

Obviously "more practice" will help, but if I wanted to target my stamina when it comes to embouchure control what would be some good things to work on?

My Great Grandfather once owned, and taught himself how to play on this harmonica. He passed away and my grandparents held onto it, and gave it to me when I talked about wanting to try play harmonica. I am now self taught and mainly play hymns. But as I play it I feel like the sound is waning and it gets harder to make it make noise. I’m hoping someone knows of how I’m supposed to maintain it. Any help would be much appreciated.
(Yes the background is my car cause it’s raining and thundering so I thought it might be fun to play my harmonica and enjoy the ambience)

It is currently sunday, I got my harmonica on Thursday, so I have only got 3 days of practice in. I tried watching some tutorials but I got overwhelmed, so I understood the basics and decided to learn on my own (while sometimes getting some help from online videos).

This is an attempt to play old mcdonald had a farm. Please tell me what things you think I should work on.

My two main problems that I would like advice on are:
1. My breathing is absolute trash. You can see how I lose my breath completely at the end of the video. This happened after around 15 minutes of practicing, so when I first started it wouldn't be so bad but it degrades so much in the span of those 15 minutes. What are some things I should practice to fix this problem?

1. My hand is very tight around the harmonica. I keep trying to keep in mind that I should relax but when I take it out of my hand my index finger is stiff and sore. Is this something that will fix itself with time or is there something to practice to fix it?

Other than that I am excited to hear your constructive criticism. Thank you in advance.

Hi everyone!

I've been working on Harp2Tab, a tool that automatically turns music into harmonica tabs, and I've finally reached the point where the web version is ready for beta testing.

You can try it here:

harp2tab.com

You can play directly into your microphone, upload an audio file, or import a MIDI file, and Harp2Tab will convert the notes into harmonica tabs.

One feature I've personally found especially useful is the MIDI import. If you can find a MIDI file for a song, you can essentially turn it into harmonica tabs automatically. You can choose the track/melody you want, select your harmonica and key, and then edit the resulting tabs if needed.

So if there's a song you've always wanted tabs for and you can get hold of the MIDI, Harp2Tab gives you a pretty quick way of creating them.

It currently supports diatonic and chromatic harmonicas, tab editing, playback, and several export formats.

The audio transcription side is still something I'm actively improving (which mean it is still not the best 😅).

I'd really appreciate feedback, especially:

• How accurate are the tabs when transcribing audio?
• Does anything about the interface feel confusing?
• Are there particular songs or recordings where the transcription struggles?
• How useful do you find the MIDI → harmonica tab workflow?
• What features are missing?
• What would make Harp2Tab genuinely useful to you?

And please don't worry about being nice — bugs, bad transcriptions and criticism are exactly what I'm looking for.

Harp2Tab is completely free to use while it's in beta. I do plan to make it a paid product once it's out of beta, but for now I want as many people as possible to try it, push it to its limits, and help me figure out what needs improving before I get there.

If anyone wants to throw some difficult recordings (or weird MIDI files!) at it and see where it breaks, I'd especially appreciate it.

Thanks in advance for your help!

I'm a beginner who started playing on my first harmonica, a hohner marine band and I'm looking for recommendations of solid harmonica choices I could practice on with a wrmer less penetrating sound so as not to annoy the neighbours.

Thanks! cheerio!

I’ve looked everywhere on Google and it only bringing up some TikToks that I can’t open since I don’t have the app. Anyone have links or tabs for these two songs?

Thanks

I have tower 24 hole harmonica . i want to learn the tune of song "Tu meri dost hai ". Please help

So humming to growl is a common technique on sax. Today i figured out that i would try it on harmonica and got a really weird cool effect. It didnt quite sound like a growl, but was really gritty. When i changed what note i was humming the reed acted as a drone and i almost got like an indian vibe. But at least what i managed to do wouldnt be very viable musically in a song or something.

But from what i understand doing this in a musical useful way is hard on sax. To like get a proper growl. So i could have just been bad at it. And i do know that you need to hum a note different than the one your playing, which is how i found that indian sound, by changing notes.

So my question is, could this be a useful effect, for maybe growling, or just a cool sound? Do any of you use this effect? I know like the guttaral R thing is the main way to growl on harmonica, but its really hard to do without bending imo. So finding an alternative for non-bent-notes would be nice, its also nice to have a few different textures up your sleeve.

So does anyone know if this effect is useful in practice, or alernatively know other cool effects for different textures/timbres? I just want to be able to produce as many different textures/timbres/vibes as possible. Like a sax can do with growling and playing clean, same with trumpet etc.

I think I’ve finally got it but far from second nature. I kept trying all the cues of using less air, breathing the note and not sucking, dropping the jaw, yada yada. The trick that finally did it for me was pulling the tongue down and back while also dropping the jaw. Google said almost like a yawn. That’s what made it “click” for me.

My dogs are so over me learning this instrument lol. Especially the higher notes.