Christmas Harmonica: Tchaikovsky: Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy - 48 Chord and Double Bass Harmonica

**Please like and subscribe! I’m almost at 500 subscribers! Thank you!!** Hey. I hope you’re doing well and had a great holiday. I’m teaching more and more harmonica, voice, and piano lessons via Zoom, and they’re going really well. I have some more availability if you are interested to getting to the next level on your instruments! I’m also taking studio recording gigs, both from my personal studio and to local studios like Morningstar Studios in East Norriton, PA. I’m also taking more harmonica repairs and customizing orders, which there will be a longer waitlist in the next few weeks due to demand. Feel free to contact me at: Email: Boazjkim (at) gmail (dot) com. ******************************************** If you like what you hear/learn from my channel, please leave a tip if you can. Due to the Pandemic most of my performance gigs have been cancelled/postponed. I’m planning to make a few more public harmonica lessons in the near future. PayPal: Boazjkim (at) Gmail (dot) com Venmo: @Boaz-Kim Either way, thank you for listening and subscribing to this channel! ***************************************** Here is a 48 chord harmonica solo that I arranged a little over a year ago of this very famous song from Tchaikovsky’s, “The Nutcracker.“ It’s been a while since I’ve played it but I thought it would be perfect for Christmas time. You should be able to hear the melody pretty clearly. I kept the bass harmonica part as-is with a minor adjustment. I think the bass part is harder than the chord part! I like to figure out melodies that will fit well enough on this unwieldy harmonica as it creates a different thought process and it helps make it more versatile and musical. The 48 chord harmonica is about 2 feet long and melodies were never intended to be played on it when it was invented almost 100 years ago. The harmonica has the number 48 in its name for the number of chords it has built in it. The 48 chords allow it to play all of the basic chords in every key, making it a type of chromatic harmonica. A chord harmonica player’s main role is to take the place of the drums and rhythm guitar in a harmonica ensemble. There was a major hit in 1947 achieved by the harmonica ensemble called, “The Harmonicats,“ with the song, “Peg ’O My Heart,“ which opens up with a chord harmonica solo of the melody. Though the chord player, Al Fiore, of the group often got credit for it, the solo was originally arranged by his former bandmate Alan Pogson, who played in several groups including Borrah Minevitch’s Harmonica Rascals. Pogson is credited as being the creator of the concept of playing melodies on the chord harmonica. Both Pogson and Fiore were both the first generation of chord harmonica players soon after the new type of harmonica was invented at the tail end of the vaudeville era. I hope you dig some of the harmonica history here! Gear used: Hohner Double Bass 78 customized by Boaz Kim Hohner Chord 48 Thank you to Hohner for your support!