What do blues artists call the harmonica?

What do blues artists call the harmonica?

The harmonica (nicknamed “harp” by blues players) has been used by generations of rock and roll musicians influenced by blues tradition, especially Little Walter Jacobs’s of the Muddy Waters band.

What is slang for harmonica?

Harp is blues slang for a harmonica, which is also called a comb. Down South a harmonica is sometimes called a mouth harp or a French harp.

Why is the harmonica used in blues music?

It is typically used in blues, country, rock and roll and folk music. These musical genres are somewhat similar in structure and form, and often borrow ideas from each other. The harmonica is appropriate as a backup to the main vocal melody and instruments due to its rich harmonic structure and subdued intensity.

Who is the best blues harmonica player ever?

Top 10 Blues Harmonica Players

• Big Walter Horton.
• Charlie Musselwhite.
• James Cotton.
• Sonny Boy Williamson II.
• Paul Butterfield.
• Junior Wells.
• Sonny Boy Williamson.
• Little Walter. Marian “Little” Walter Jacobs, born in Marksville, Louisiana in 1930, is the undisputed king of the blues harmonica.

Why is a harmonica called a mouth organ?

For a start, the term “mouth organ” can refer to many instruments – from the Asian sheng, sho, khaen, sompoton, etc, to the Western harmonicas, blow accordions, melodicas and similar instruments. All of these instruments can be considered small reed organ that are blown by mouth.

Why is harmonica called harp?

The term is partly inspired by the Aeolian harp, a stringed instrument that is left outdoors to be played by the wind, whose name was taken from Aeolus the god of the wind. Early names for the harmonica were Aeolina, Aeolian and Mund-Aeoline, which stressed this link with the Aeolian harp.

Is the harmonica an American instrument?

The harmonica, that most modest of instruments, has ancestors that go back to Asia over a thousand years ago. But the “mouth organ” or “harp” as we know it today dates back only to 19th century Germany.

Is the harmonica a real instrument?

The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed brass instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock.

What is different about a blues harmonica?

What is the difference between a harp (or blues harp) and a standard diatonic harmonica? Nothing. The term harp is short for “blues harp” and they are both slang for harmonica.