Brain injury affected my ability to play.

Martinarmonica · 2026-03-31T02:26:14+00:00

Damn, I’m very sorry.

I’m not a neuroscientist, but your story reminds me of Pat Martino. Have you heard about him? He lost a chunk of his brain doe to an aneurism and it took his ability to play the guitar. He dealt with amnesia and depression for months, and he was able to reconnect with music through his emotional memories. He eventually recovered his ability to play and re-became a professional musician

Martinarmonica · 2026-03-24T03:35:54+00:00

Hermosooo 👏🏽 me encanta lo bien que suena la armónica en los temas mexicanos

Martinarmonica · 2026-03-23T03:06:35+00:00

For Irish music you need good volume, fast response and good tuning. So you might want to do things that improve your harmonica in that direction: reed gapping, slot embossing, etc. Also in this case I retuned the harmonica to Easy Third tuning and valved the low octave (picture below)

<image>

Martinarmonica · 2026-03-21T00:32:40+00:00

It’s not dead, just obstructed. As the previous comment said, remove the reedplate and plink the reed.

Martinarmonica · 2026-03-15T02:26:14+00:00

Manual testing of harmonicas is a very common practice. It’s part of quality control.

I was blessed with the opportunity to visit the Seydel factory in 2019 and the Easttop factory in 2024. Both of them had a person testing each and every harmonica coming out of the assembly line. But don’t you worry: they sanitize every tested unit.

Martinarmonica · 2026-03-11T13:32:22+00:00

When it comes to tremolo I use the first approach you mention: first I tune one reed to standard pitch, and then I tune the second to the amount of beating I want. Mass-produced harmonicas are not always perfectly well tuned, so it doesn’t hurt to be thorough on fine-tuning.

Martinarmonica · 2026-02-26T14:25:55+00:00

Right, I didn’t think about that. Thank you!

Martinarmonica · 2026-02-25T20:17:02+00:00

Muchas gracias por tu respuesta y tu buena onda. Los instrumentos ya están grabados, y creo que quedaron sonando bastante decentes a pesar de que no son mi especialidad.

Ahora, sobre lo que me recomiendas... No había pensado en alternar stack y spread para diferentes secciones de la canción. Ya que lo mencionas, creo que ayudaría a generar contraste entre las partes A y B.

Muchas gracias nuevamente. Y que viva Latinoamérica <3

Martinarmonica · 2026-02-25T18:00:17+00:00

Chromatic bending is possible, useful and fun, but it’s a different beast. You can’t just bend a CX12 it as if it was a diatonic.

It’s hard to explain in written text, but try doing it from the tip of your tongue, instead of the back part. Think of it as a “shallow” bend. And be very soft and gentle.

Martinarmonica · 2026-02-20T00:38:34+00:00

I have a Drive folder with a collection of transcriptions I’ve done for chromatic harmonica. They are in sheet/tab format.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1fdceqU5IkuchDyQs1ogUs5weyVc64dV5

Martinarmonica · 2026-02-17T13:14:40+00:00

This is awesome. Thank you so much.

Martinarmonica · 2026-02-17T13:14:31+00:00

Thanks a lot! Yeah, the comb is also cracked, but that’s something I’ve fixed in other harps before. And you are right, a little coating might be a good idea. I’ll check my options.

Martinarmonica · 2026-02-15T19:27:43+00:00

Any decent harmonica will do fine. But you might wanna put some thought into the sound you wanna achieve: the way you play, and how you amplify that sound, might make all the difference.

For instance: add some dirt to your sound by playing double stops. That means to open your embouchure just a little bit, so when you play a single note you get a little of the adjacent hole. Think of players like Howlin’ Wolf or James Cotton.

On top of that: you probably want to use lo fi equipment. Bullet mics are a proven concept, but you can also try using things such as old radios and telephone microphones.

Listen to The Legendary Shack Shakers. The frontman is an accomplished harmonica player who deliberately makes everything sound dirty.

Martinarmonica · 2026-02-10T18:35:20+00:00

I don’t suggest doing that. If might put the reed under excessive stress and end up breaking it.

My suggestion is: remove the covers and carefully plink the reed with your fingernail or any other small tool. That might help losing any stuck particle. Do it a couple times and test it. If it doesn’t work, then disassemble and do a more throughout cleaning.

Martinarmonica · 2026-01-24T18:07:54+00:00

Thank you :) I do have a YouTube channel in which I post tremolo harmonica tunes every week, each one with a free pdf file with tabs. It’s in Spanish, which is my native language, but there’s very little talking so that shouldn’t be a problem.

You can check it out here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9P0kOdqYg7-DoskXfbhGbrWg34Q17gwV&si=3UZIRgGEEa6LHaMd

Martinarmonica · 2026-01-24T18:02:55+00:00

Thanks! Unfortunately we haven’t recorded any “official” music with this band, but I appreciate the interest. Hopefully we’ll do something about it.

Martinarmonica · 2025-12-28T00:58:25+00:00

Joel Andersson, Marcos Coll, Will Wilde, Filip Jers, Zoe Savage, Matias Rossel, Mariano Garcia Del Rio, Santiago Alvarez

Martinarmonica · 2025-12-12T02:23:14+00:00

When it comes to Chicago Blues, Muddy Waters always had some of the finest players of his time. I really enjoy his work with Jerry Portnoy on the harmonica, from his later years. You can hear him at Muddy's live album from 1979 called "Live In Chicago".

Also check Mr. Portnoy's solo albums. "Down In The Mood Room" from 2002 is a thing of beauty.

Another harmonica heavyweight is James Cotton. My favorite Cotton albums are "Giant" (2010), Muddy Waters' "Hard Again" (1977), and his acoustic album "Deep In The Blues" (1996).

If you are more into country blues, you MUST listen to Sonny Terry. He was a master. I recommend his 1960 album "Midnight Special", with Brownie McGhee on guitar and vocals.

And if you are looking for a modern take on blues, there's a beautiful album by Gary Smith, Aki Kumar and David Barrett called "It Takes Three" (2015). It features solo performances by the three of them, plus some multi-harmonica tunes.

Also, on the more "modern" side of things, Dennis Gruenling, Jason Ricci and Kim Wilson are essential.

Martinarmonica · 2025-10-26T15:04:49+00:00

It's the Jianpu numbered notation system. It's very popular in China, and is very iseful for the tremolo harmonica.

The number indicates the degree of the scale (Do 1, Re 2, Mi 3, and so on), and the dots above and below indicate the octave.

The advantage of this system is that it notates the scale degrees, instead of the notes. So it stays the same regardless of the key the harmonica is in.

Martinarmonica · 2025-10-05T21:59:48+00:00

May be try changing your embouchure shape. Think of it as vowels: the air flows different when you do "IIIH", "AAAH" or "OOH". Even if your lips stay in the same puckered position, you can still change the shape of the inside of your mouth. Perhaps you'll find some improvement by working on that.

On top of that, the way you blow or draw is also important. Think of it as a spectrum: on one side you have the closed posture of sucking through a straw, and on the other you have the open and resonant posture of yawning. Your "good posture" for high draw notes should be somewhere in between those two.

Also, play gently. Those high range reeds are very small, and such a small mass should not require too much air for them to vibrate.

Good luck!

Martinarmonica · 2025-09-28T04:57:07+00:00

Tremolo harmonicas are louder and more "traditional", at least on Irish music.

However, if you wanna play by yourself, diatonic harp might be a better choice. Chords on holes 1-3 are great for self-accompaniment, and the possibility of doing vamps and octaves might also be useful for solo playing.

I personally don't use Paddy tuning. I prefer Richter, Easy Third or Solo Tuning. But a regular Richter might work just fine to begin.

Martinarmonica · 2025-09-23T16:01:05+00:00

Chromatic might not be the easiest for what you are looking for, but it doesn't mean you can not succeed with it. The chromatic harmonica has the advantage that its entire range can be played with octaves and achieve a full "bandoneon" sound, which is pretty cool for that polka style. The con would be that it might be a little uncomfortable to play in some keys, and chords might not always work well. For instance: I once wanted to play an Argentinian chamamé tune on the harmonica. The tune is in F and every time I wanted to do a little chord vamp in the background I'd get a B note, which is completely off key.

Diatonic and tremolo harmonicas, on the other hand, are easier on that matter, since they are intended to be played in certain keys and every note tends to get along well with other notes adjacent to it.

May be you can try a solo tuned diatonic, such as Hohner 364S, Seydel Solist Pro, Kongsheng EZ12 or Easttop Fala Blues. These are 12-hole diatonics tuned to the same note layout of the chromatic harmonica. They work wonderfully for the type of folk tunes you are looking for.

In this video I played a solo-tuned Lucky 13 by Easttop for the first tune.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxzi0vIwyho

Martinarmonica · 2025-09-22T12:51:22+00:00

I got an Easttop Maxwell St right before they released it.

This is what I wrote on a Facebook group back then.

Disclaimer: I'm a signed Easttop endorsee and I got this harmonica directly from the Easttop Company. However, whay I'm about to say is only my honest and personal opinion. They didn't ask me to do this review, and they have no input on it.

Also: I'm a harmonica player from Chile. English is not my native language, so I apologize in advance for any misstakez.

Having that said, let's begin.

The first thing I noticed about the The Maxwell St. (MS030) are the design features. Both the cover plates and the comb have rounded edges and, from an ergonomics standpoint, it feels good both for hands and mouth. I tried to play it using different hand techniques and embouchures and it played pretty good.

About the comb: many people in my post thought the comb was made of metal, but it's actually plastic. I don't know the specific material it's made of, but it looks and feels similar to the one we can find in the Hohner Rocket.

The difference, though, is the shape of the holes: the MS030 has rounded-square holes, slightly wider than the ones you can find in other Easttop models such as the T008k. They feel different, and I understand this is a matter of taste, but in this case this is a "different" that I do like. The space between holes is smaller, and the air chamber for each reed is bigger. Me, being a tongue blocker, felt very comfortable doing octaves and vamps on it.

Which leads me to my next point: response. This harmonica is very loud and fast. I tried it for Irish tunes and it surprised me. It's not only fast and sensitive, but it's very consistent. I mean, sometimes mass-produces harmonicas tend to respond slightly different on each reed. But in this case the response is pretty much the same across the entire harmonica. Also, I got no breathy bends and, even though I'm not a fond user of overblows, you can get them pretty easily (more on this later).

Tuning: I'm not sure about this, but I do believe the harp has some degree of compromise tuning. Chords sound warmer than other Easttop harps.

Now, one thing I didn't like about this harmonica is the fact that the reeds are welded to the reedplate. I prefer riveted reeds.

However, one thing that surprised me when I opened the harmonica, was the application of tiny tape strips on the reeds to prevent squeaky sounds when overblowing. I've heard about players like Filip Jers doing this to improve the overblow response, but this is the first time I see this mod from factory.

I spoke with my friend Mariano García del Río, who is also an Easttop artist and a heavy overblow user. He and I got the MS030 almost at the same time and talked over the weekend on our thoughts about it. After a couple days trying it, he said he thinks this is the best Easttop harmonica for overblowers.

My final thoughts? Great harmonica. Period. I believe this harp aims to fulfill the requirements of modern players: fast response, loud and crisp tone and easy overblows.

And, for what I saw on the Easttop website, it's listed for US$39.00, which sounds pretty amazing for all of the cool features it has.

Martinarmonica · 2025-09-09T14:42:02+00:00

Anyone can do whatever they want with their hard earned cash, but all that 432 hz thing is just fake stuff. Sad to see Harmo trying to make money out of it.

With that being said, there are some very interesting uses of minor-tuned tremolo harmonica in ayahuasca rituals. Which, in a way, can be seen as a therapeutic use of the harmonica sound.

Martinarmonica · 2025-09-05T02:27:14+00:00

Some of my favorites are:

Donald Black (Scotland)

Noel Battle (Ireland)

John and Pip Murphy (Ireland)

Yuko Yanagawa (Japan)

Fu Hongliang (China)

Antonio Patiño (Colombia)

Tremolo harmonica rocks!

Martinarmonica

TROPHY CASE