My First Harmonica

Keith Parker, Editorial Team

I first heard diatonic blues harmonica in 1964 when my older brother came home with a record player and a selection of singles, one of which was the Rolling Stones Not Fade Away, Wow, what was that sound? A mouth organ! I wanted to make that sound and play music - anything is better than a school recorder, so after saving my pocket money I went to the music/record shop in Bishops Stortford and said to the lady behind the counter “I want a mouth organ. I want to sound like the Rolling Stones”. Well, she must have looked at this 11-year-old boy with money in his hand and thought “it’s only a fad”, and she took my money and sold me a Hohner Larry Adler 12 chromatic! I took it home very excited, but I very quickly realised that this did not sound like the Rolling Stones, and it had cost me £21 shillings and sixpence, all my savings. A couple of months went by, and I went back to the shop and tried again. Even worse this time, they sold me a Hohner curved tremolo, but I wasn’t giving up. Time passed, and one Saturday night I was allowed to go to the dance in the local village hall with strict instructions to stay by my brother’s side. The music at this dance was provided by a live group playing British RnB and rock and roll, and then it happened: the moment that changed my musical life. The singer invited a young man on stage, and he pulled a small harmonica out of his pocket and joined in with the band to a Chuck Berry number. “Yes, Yes”, I shouted, “That’s it! That’s the sound I’m after”. In the break, I plucked up the courage to ask this young man what he was playing, and he showed me. It was a Hohner Echo Super vamper, so that’s what I need. I went back to the shop to buy one, but what key do you want? Key, key... I don’t know, and she sold me an E! I then set off on the road, learning to play, but with no books, videos and certainly no YouTube, the only way was to listen to records and try to copy them. My learning source was the album “Fresh Cream” by Cream, which I wore out, but it enabled me to learn that sound which I later discovered was bending and phrasing. The rest is history. I met that now-not-so-young man with the Super vamper again about 40 years later when I moved to the same town where he lived, and I told him this story; to which he said to me “you have taken it to another level”, “Maybe”, I said, “but without you I would still be trying to play the blues on that Larry Adler 12 chromatic”. Sadly, he passed away, and I played a tribute to him at his memorial, and guess what I played? That’s right - “Not Fade Away”. I still have that Echo Super vamper in E, but sadly it does not play anymore. That moment in the sixties has enabled me to play with some great musicians on stages in lots of countries around the world, and even now, lots of years later, that sound still gives me that WOW!