Announcements

Announcements 

Back By Popular Demand…

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We meet Tuesday evenings on Zoom…

Time : 7.00pm-8.30pm (UK)
Fee : £10.00 GBP payable in advance
Schedule : Tuesdays from 21st March 2023
Platform : Zoom

What do workshops include?
Breathing and musical warm up exercises. Identifying the key of our weekly ‘mystery’ song. Work on our chosen study pieces. Focus on specific harmonica skills and techniques. Q&A, advice and information exchange. We use a combination of harmonica tabs and standard notation, but you won’t need to read music in order to join in. All ability levels are welcome.

How to sign up
Harp Surgery sessions are pay-as-you-go. To confirm your attendance and receive our unique weekly password please transfer £10.00 in advance by PayPal. Simply type paypal.me/harpsurgery into your web browser and follow the instructions. Please ensure you include the Workshop Date and Your Name in the ‘What’s this payment for?’ window. (more…)

Announcements 

Richard Teaching Harmonica Live On The Radio

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Early on Friday morning at this year’s Harpin’ By The Sea harmonica festival, Richard Taylor, launched proceedings in the company of BBC Radio Sussex reporter Hanna Neter.

Hanna was challenged by Breakfast Show host Alison Fearns to learn and perform her first ever harmonica tune live on air. Richard and Hanna duly got to work and within half an hour Hanna was playing When The Saints Go Marching In! You can hear what everyone got up to right here…


If you’d like to learn the harmonica for yourself, or improve your existing skills, contact Richard Taylor now. Details of lessons are right here.

Announcements 

Harmonica Lesson Gift Vouchers

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Birthday VoucherSimple Gifts
If you need a special Christmas or Birthday gift for your aspiring harmonica player, look no further. Whether it’s for a particular occasion or just for fun, everyone enjoys a special surprise. Pay for the lesson in advance and we will email you a Harp Surgery gift voucher.

Need a harmonica too?
We can supply you with a harmonica to help get things underway too. Visit our harmonica store page and select the best harp for your budget. If you’re unsure which one to go for, email us and we’ll be happy to lend some advice.

Harmonica Gift Cards
If you need a card to go with the voucher, let us know and we’ll mail one to you.

Price list
Christmas VoucherLesson prices are on our lessons page (Services Menu). You can opt for private 1:1 lessons here at the Harp Surgery, or a virtual lesson on Zoom. Lessons are 1 hour. If you’d like a course of lessons, a discounted rate is available and we can customise your voucher accordingly.

Terms and conditions
Your first lesson must be taken within 6 months of the date of purchase. Remaining lessons must be used at a rate of one (or more) per consecutive month thereafter. For faster development we recommend booking lessons at fortnightly or weekly intervals. We regret that vouchers are non-refundable.

Announcements Reviews - Harps 

Hohner PentaHarp

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The harp beginner’s and guitarist’s new friend
The PentaHarp has finally reached the UK and we have been busy putting it through its paces. With an attractive electric blue ABS comb, the PentaHarp is essentially a special tuning in a Special 20 shell. An addition to Hohner’s Progressive Series, it comes in a sturdy flip-top box and is packaged in an eye catching outer carton featuring Nashville singer song-writer, Payton Taylor. The packaging explains:


“The PentaHarp simplifies the harmonica by giving players easy access to one of the most useful scales in rock and blues music without the need for advanced techniques. The tonal layout is the Blues Scale, which is a Minor Pentatonic scale with the added ‘blue’ note. Create expressive melodies and solos quickly and easily, and never play a wrong note!”

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Announcements 

1st Position Blues Harp – An Introduction (Part 4)

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The Grand Canyon which yawns between the writer’s concept of what he wants to capture in words and what comes through is a cruel abyss.
— Fannie Hurst

Welcome to the final leg of our journey into 1st position blues technique. In previous posts we considered why 1st position blues can sometimes be left in the shadows. We also touched on building a general awareness of positional playing, how some positions are interchangeable, the Ionian Mode, the low end 1st position blues scale, and some low and high end 1st position signature licks.

As our versatility in 1st position grows, an inherent problem soon emerges; there’s not much on offer in the middle octave, so it’s difficult to connect holes 1 to 10 fluently using the blues scale. Consequently a common feature of 1st position blues involves jumping back and forth between the lower and upper ends of the harp.

In the middle register, the 1st position blues scale is buried in some uncomfortable overbends. For many players these are unachievable, which is why they’re left with such a meagre musical menu. Examples of licks played between holes 4B and 7B are few and far between, and the content is usually unsubstantial. Nonetheless, let’s see if we can shed some light on this time-worn enigma

Listen to
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Announcements 

Mud Ball Musings CD Review

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Good afternoon gentlemen, let’s go for a blues on this mudball!

Regulars at the Harp Surgery will know how much we admire the harmonica style of Adam ‘Tidy’ Burney and The Brothers of Mothershovel. Newcomers fear not, you can catch up by reading our review from 2017 of their wonderful album Umcha, Umcha. In the meantime, hang onto your hats, he’s back!

Last month, amidst a nerve-wracking summer of Euro soccer, Otis the postman delivered an eagerly anticipated copy of Tidy’s new solo album, Mudball Musings. We duly closed the Surgery early, put the kettle on and gathered round the radiogram. The result? A feast for the ears, with an array of guest artists and supporting musicians, and of course harp playing of the highest magnitude. (more…)