(01) About this Blog

I will be using this blog to document the process I use to master playing the chromatic harmonica. The goal is to provide a resource to others who are just getting started on this same path.  The blog will not be a "curriculum" but rather document the learning resources and processes I am using. I hope to find others who will travel the path with me as I attempt to become proficient on this creative instrument. To be clear, I am not an experienced chromatic player, but rather someone who is struggling to learn. No doubt I will post some things that are at best naive and at worst totally wrong!

I am not a beginner at harmonica. I have been playing the diatonic harmonica for many years. So my jump to chromatic will be shorter than a true beginner. As I begin the journey, I already can easily play single notes, have good tone, and have mastered playing known melodies by ear.  As a result, if this truly the first time you have picked up a harmonica, you will have to master some of those skills to catch up. I host the Facebook group known as, The Gospel Harmonica Community.  My primary opportunity for live performance is my church and you will see many but not all of the melodies I play and learn will be Gospel tunes. 

What I will be sharing will be the online instructional tools, resources I find valuable, software tools and processes I use.   And as I make progress, you can watch the performance videos I post to see snapshots, hopefully of my skills development. Knowing that I will be sharing publicly my growth will encourage me to work harder.

My personal musical goals are to certainly be able to play chromatic harmonica by ear as I do the diatonic, and it is also very important to me personally to master playing melodies from music notation.  To me that has always been the missing skill that would allow me to think of myself as a musician. Therefore I will be sharing the tools I am using for both improv and by ear as well as playing from musical notation.

I am using the WIX blogging tool because it makes authoring posts easy and media rich.. The downside, is the free version (for now) will have some ads. A more challenging problem is traditional blogs always post the last item posted at the beginning. I think my journal will be of higher value if you follow it from oldest post to newest post. The way I'll have to trick Wix is to change the posting date. To keep things clear, I am adding a sequence "number" to the title of each post to show the order you should read the post.

Contact me via email at:

Feel free to send corrections, list additional resources, share your learning experiences, and give input for things I can do better.

12/23/20 01