Harmonica Foundation - Course Curriculum

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Level: Beginner

Week 1

• 4 week foundation level

• how to hold the harmonica

• how to breathe

• train rhythm

• simple blues chugging

• single notes and simple melodies

• 12 bar blues structure knowledge

• basic improvisation

Week 2

• How to play a clean 2 draw

• What is articulation

• What is the structure of a 12 Bar Blues and how does it relate to a harmonica

• Learn a simple 12 Bar Blues tune

Week 3

• Articulating 1/8th notes

• Reading Simple Sheet Music

• Understanding Turnarounds

• Increasing Melodic Repertoire

Week 4

• C Major Scale with 1/8th Notes

• Using a Metronome

• Understanding the Start of a Piece of Music

• How to Practice Efficiently

• Understanding the End of a 12 Bar Blues

Week 5

• More Work With Metronome

• Learning to Play in Different Scenarios

• Chugging with Shuffle Rhythm

• Mixing Chugging and Single Notes

Week 6

• Learning to Relax

• Get comfortable with higher notes

• Building up speed

• Understanding practice and improvement

Week 7

• Count through a Slow Blues

• Discover Triplet subdivisions

• I - IV - I - V turnarounds

• Know how long you should work on something

Week 8

• Start warbling

• Get into the habit of recording your practice

Week 9

• Discover bending

• Apply different ideas to learning to bend

• Understand the importance of goal setting

Week 10

• Discover Glissandos

• Bending the 3 draw

• Introduction to positions

Week 11

• Discover Comping

• What Harmonica Keys are Useful

Week 12

• Discover Quick Changes

• 2 draw whole step bend

Week 13

• Hand Wah

• Inflections


Advanced Beginner

Week 1

• Basic understanding of harmonica positions

• Knowledge of simple pentatonic scale

• Ability to use a metronome 

• 12 bar blues structure knowledge

• Rhythmic improvisation over a 12 bar blues

Week 2

 • Improve 4 draw bend

 • 1/8th note rhythms

 • Rhythmic improvisation around a 12 bar blues

Week 3

 • Starting to learn blues scale

 • Understanding tension and resolution of the flat 5

 • Shuffle Rhythms

 • 3 draw half step bend

Week 4

• Work on the full blues scale

• Building great sounding solos using AAA, AAB and ABC song forms

• Proper breathing on the harmonica

• Understanding 2nd position and playing in different keys

Week 5

• Chugging

• Vamping

• Mixing chugging and single note licks over a 12 bar blues

Week 6

• Comfortable with comping

• 12 bar blues with lower and upper octave root notes and pivot note

• 2 draw whole step bend

Week 7

• Understand triplets

• Able to play blues scale with triplet rhythm slowly

• 12 Bar Blues with triplet licks

• Write your own triplet licks

• Refined 2 draw whole step bend

• Using a 2 draw whole step bend in riffs

• Learning how to practice more effectively

Week 8

• Warbles 

• Triplet blues scale with metronome nice and slowly

• 1 draw half step bend

• Adding in extra notes to the blues scale

Week 9

• Hole-skipping

• Pick-up phrases

• Quick change 12 bar blues

Week 10

• Glissandos

• Keeping count over a slow blues

• Playing a slow blues

• Using doublestops to develop a blues solo

• Playing a 3 draw whole step bend

Week 11

• Speed push with blues scale

• Playing an unaccompanied 12 Bar Blues

• Improvisation in spaces between rhythmic riffs

• Developing one bar licks

Week 12

• Test Piece


Level: Intermediate

Week 1

• Strong understanding of rhythms (1/4 notes, 1/8 notes, triplets)

• Blues scale in 2nd position

• Ability to improvise using root notes over a 12 bar blues

• Understanding of octaves

Week 2

• Comfortable with triplet timing

• Increase your speed

• More thoughts about improvisation around 12 bar blues chord changes

Week 3

• Increased speed and accuracy

• Understanding how to play a one-chord blues

• Turning one lick into 6 licks

Week 4

• How to transcribe by ear

• How to play and improvise around a (Hook-based) Blues

Week 5

• More ear training

• Practicing the blues scale inside out

• Tongue blocked octaves

• 8 bar blues form

Week 6

• Comfortable with inside out blues scale using 1/4 and 1/8 notes

• Happy playing with a singer

• Able to convert single note licks to octave licks

• Start working out the key of a song by ear

Week 7

• Hand Wah

• Chord tones

• Thinking in numbers with bass lines

• Slow blues

• Targeting Chord Tones

Week 8

• Refining the 3 draw whole step bend

• Learning the major pentatonic scale

• I’ve got some major blues’ 12 bar example

• Boogie Blues Bassline

• Improvising around a bassline

Week 9

• Understanding and playing 1/16th notes

• Fast 1/16th note patterns

• Improved rhythmic awareness

• Rhumba Style bassline

• Finding space to improvise

• Maintaining repertoire

Week 10

• How to use major and minor pentatonic scales over a 12 bar blues

• Building a master scale with chord tones and two pentatonic scales

• Learning an entire piece of music off by heart

Week 11

• How to build up speed by playing lighter

• Repeating triplet patterns

• Blues Scale Patterns

Week 12

• Test Piece

 

Level: Advanced Intermediate

Week 1

• Basic understanding of 3rd position blues scale and when to use it

• Ability to use 2nd position knowledge to open up 3rd position

• Major/minor music theory

Week 2

• This month we are going to work on getting the bends all clear in the lower octave

• 3rd position blues scale in lower octave

• Transcribing music in 3rd position

Week 3

• Comfortable playing the blues scale in 3rd position across 2 octaves

• Improvising around a minor blues bassline like Green Onions

• Happy playing in 2nd and 3rd position on the same backing track

Week 4

• Major scale in 1st position across 2 octaves

• Understanding how major scale is built

• Understanding how chords are built

• Improvising melodically using chord arpeggios

Week 5

• Understanding dominant chords

• Playing chord tones over a 12 bar blues in 2nd position

• Improvising using chord tones on 1 hole

• Writing a 12 bar blues using chord tones

Week 6

• Play over a V-IV-I change using chord tones

• Know all the chord tones for I-IV and V from holes 1 - 6

• Able to improvise without hitting the root notes

• Blow-bending on holes 8,9 and 10

• Blues scale in 1st position from hole 7

• Transpose Sweet Home Chicago into 1st position

Week 7

• Vibrato

• Root note targeting an improvising in 1st position in upper octave

• Speed licks in 1st position

• Sweet Home Chicago in 1st position

• 1st position 12 bar blues “The Best Position Blues"

Week 8

• Bending accuracy

• Bending stamina

• Vibrato

• Advanced Metronome Skills

• Playing a minor blues in 2nd position


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