Surpassing the popularity of guitar and violin, Harmonica has become one of the best-selling musical instruments in the world. This easy-to-carry and melodious musical instrument has always been one of the most popular musical instruments; Let's learn everything about this profound musical instrument. Starting from the origin of this musical instrument to the usefulness and reasons for its popularity, we will discuss everything in this article.
• Origin
In ancient China, this musical instrument developed, and with time it acquired the most popular across the globe for its sheer easy to comprehend playing process. In, 1850, the instrument made its voyage from China to Germany, and from here it started to mass-produce the musical instrument. In the 1860s from Germany, it traveled to the United States, and the popularity of this instrument hikes from this time. During this time, this instrument became an inseparable part of their folk music, influencing various genres of American music.
Almost 80 years, after the instrument went to the US, blues artists started to use this instrument as part of their everyday music, and within a few years, it became a mainstream music instrument and an integral of American music. Legendary music artists like Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, and Stevie Wonder started to use this instrument. Their mastered ways of using this musical instrument have played a gigantic part in the popularity of this instrument.
• How does it Work?
A harmonica is divided into five parts which are the top cover, button cover, a draw reed plate, a blow reed plate, and a comb. The blow holes of this instrument are called the reed chambers which produce the sound. Each of these holes will produce a separate sound. The instrument player will use their hands to create a vibrating effect to play this instrument.
• Why harmonica is the most popular musical instrument?
Several reasons have decided the popularity of this instrument widely. the following aspects have been the deciding factors for this instrument.
• Practicality – no harmonica is longer than 10 cm, you can carry it anywhere in your pockets.
• Affordability – low cost
• Maintenance – easy to clean and maintain
• Types of Harmonica
There are three types of harmonica that you will find, based on their difficulty levels and playable diversity they are segregated into three parts.
1. Diatonic
Amongst all types of Harmonica, Diatonic is the most popular of them all as this is the most bigger-friendly instrument. Genres like country, rock, pop, and blues can use this instrument. This sort of harmonica has 10 holes and 19 notes to it. The playing method in this instrument is also very simple which has increased its demand as a beginner’s friendly option. You can also get various ranges in this instrument, based on your efficacy levels you can choose whichever option you want to have. Getting a C note Diatonic might help you to use this one instrument on several occasions.
2. Chromatic
If you are into classical or jazz music then you must opt for a Chromatic harmonica. This sort of harmonica contains all sorts of notation options. Diatonic and Chromatic both have all 12 key options which makes it extremely versatile and useful for professional usages as well. This one might not be a beginner-friendly option but it surely will allow you to comprehend this unique music instrument in a better way. It can be said that Chromatic is Diatonic’s a bit harder cousin with similar options yet harder to play.
3. Tremolo
This is a two-row harmonica and offers eight, ten, or twelve sets to double holes. This type of harmonica is the hardest to play and it is not recommended for beginners to start with this option. This sort of harmonica is also a bit complicated and hard to navigate. Hence, this one is one of the most useful options when it comes to producing the most beautiful sound possible due to the double holes concept presented in Tremolo.
This music instrument is the easiest to work with and anyone can learn this instrument easily and produce the most beautiful sound once they have mastered this playing process. The prices of harmonicas are relatively low relative to other music instruments and this is the reason millions of harmonicas are sold each year. Yet, the usefulness of this instrument is surely making it one of the leading instruments for music artists.
