Irish Harmonica Lessons

With a deep-rooted passion for both the harmonica and the rich traditions of Irish music, Joel has dedicated his life to mastering this unique combination. His extensive knowledge, unmatched skill, and heartfelt interpretation of Irish tunes on the harmonica have earned him a well-deserved reputation in the genre.

Through his Patreon page, Joel generously shares his expertise, insights, and techniques with a community of eager learners, ranging from beginners to seasoned players. Whether you're taking your first steps in playing the harmonica or seeking to refine your skills, Joel's teachings cater to all levels, ensuring a comprehensive and fulfilling learning experience.

His teaching style is characterized by his patience, clarity, and genuine love for the music. He takes great care to break down complex melodies, ornamentation, and rhythm patterns into easily digestible lessons, empowering his students to understand and recreate the soulful sounds of Irish music on their harmonicas.

Beyond the instructional material, Joel shares his musical journey, insights into the history and cultural significance of Irish music, and showcases his own performances through behind-the-scenes videos and recordings. This immersive experience provides a deeper understanding of the music, while inspiring and igniting a lifelong passion for Irish harmonica playing.

By becoming a patron of Joel Andersson's Patreon page, you not only gain access to unparalleled harmonica lessons, but you also join a vibrant community of like-minded individuals who share a deep appreciation for Irish music and the harmonica. Together, let's discover the beauty and magic of this remarkable musical tradition, one note at a time.

The Irish Harmonica Lesson Library

This is the lesson catalog for learning traditional Irish music on harmonica. Every tune lesson is complete with video, audio, sheet music with tabs but also with animated sheet music where you can follow Joel's playing and you can also slow down and speed up the music in real time.

How to access the lessons

Every tutorial, video breakdown, PDF's, tabs and audio tracks are hosted inside Joel's member community over on Patreon. Joining gives you instant access to the entire library.

Harmonicas and tunings that are used in the lessons

Playing Irish Jigs, Reels, Hornpipes, Polkas on a regular Richter tuned harmonica works to a certain extent and for some tunes you really need a regular Richter tuned harmonica. However it is highly recommended that you get Easy Third tuned harmonicas as they open up a lot more possibilities in terms of expression but it also gives you the "missing notes".

Easy Third tuned harmonicas are available from SEYDEL: https://www.seydel1847.de/en/1847-CLASSIC-Easy-Third/16240LD

Techniques

Joel is using the tongue blocking technique all the time and this is also the technique that he teaches. If you are a pucker / lip purser (meaning that you play one hole at a time) you can still join the lessons and get a lot of value out of it as you will be getting all the tune lessons complete with tabs. If you are a tongue blocker or want to start with this technique there are a lot of layers that are added to the tunes such as:

• Drones
• Octaves
• Chords
• Vamping
• Tongue Switching 

Other things that we go through are breathing techniques, how to apply rhythm to your playing and much more.

Beginner Lessons

There is also a beginners section bringing you from a complete beginner into the world of harmonicas and Irish music.

Tune Archive

Below is the complete archive of tunes that is covered on Patreon with video lessons, PDF's, animated sheet music with slow down functions and much more.

Jigs - 6/8 Time

• Maire Rua
• The Kesh Jig
• Paddy Clancy's
• Lilting Banshee
• The Black Rouge
• Mist Covered Mountain
• Young Tom Ennis

Reels - 4/4 Time

• The Honeymoon
• Ships are Sailing
• Sunny Banks
• Raheen
• Spindle Shanks
• Sally Gardens
• Mayor Harrison's Fedora
• The Wind that Shakes the Barley
• Cooley's Reel
• I have No Money
• Man of Arran

Polkas - 2/4 Time

• Brown's Kitchen
• Hayden's Fancy
• Little Diamond
• Downey's

Hornpipes - 4/4 Time

• Boys of Bluehill
• Rights of Man
• Kimmel's Buck Dance
• Galway Hornpipe

Marches - 2/4 Time

• O'Neill's March