Dan’s Biography

Hi! My name is Dan Grummett and I am looking forward to teaching online harmonica classes.

I learned to play folk harmonica when I was about ten years old

and learned to play blues while in college. I fell in love with both styles of playing. 

Around 2010, I began playing in church and jamming and performing with the local chapter of Old Time Fiddlers Association. I also started a group with a guitar player, fiddle player, and mandolin player. The guitar player and I both loved blues so we began playing a mixture of blues, country, and roots music. I soon began playing and performing with a local folk band called The Jugless Jug Band. We played both traditional and modern folk music as well as country, bluegrass, gospel and some blues. I played harmonica, drums and sang.

I later helped found a local band called The I.V. Ramblers. We play folk, rock, country, and Irish folk music. I play harmonica, drums and sing. I also play drums and harmonica for an electric blues band called Misery Whistle. We perform everything from traditional blues, jump blues, funk blues and blues rock. I conduct both harmonica and drum workshops at the Glendale Folk and Heritage Festival in Arizona.

My harmonica lessons are geared towards beginning students. We will focus on technique, reading harmonica tabs, basic music theory, and bending notes.

We will begin with simple folk songs, and we will progress towards bending techniques and playing in different positions and modes for blues and rock playing. We will also cover playing bluegrass and country.

We will cover some basic notation and sight reading but you will not be required to read standard notation. Tabs will be available along with music notation for all songs.

My main instrument is drums, so I will include rhythmic playing and how to count rhythm patterns on the harmonica. This is very helpful for playing with other musicians. Not only will you be able to play melodies, riffs, and solos, but you will also be able to play backup with the rhythm section of the band using chugging and train rhythms.

The harmonica is one of those instruments that many find easy to learn but difficult to master. Like any instrument, it requires practice and patience. But mostly, it is a lot of fun!

You will need a Hohner Special 20, a Lee Oskar or a similar quality harmonica in the key of C. Overly cheap harmonicas are often poorly tuned and use cheap reeds that will blow out faster. They will make it difficult to learn properly, especially when we start bending notes. I will help with choosing a good harmonica if you do not wish to get one of the two recommended above.