Harmonica Studio, by Yvonnick Prené

Monthly membership 27$, annual 228$

https://www.harmonicastudio.yvonnickprene.com

Yvonnick Prené, a New-York based french chromatic harp player has just launched an online course dedicated to chromatic harmonica and improvisation.

Courses, available on subscription, are rich and jazz oriented for the moment (new contents to be added over the coming weeks).

In each group, courses are divided into sequences and the attendee’s progress is displayed. You need to complete a course before moving to the next one, which is not always convenient. For instance, it would be nice to be able to watch the bebop minor scale without having to go through the previous scales first. That being said, there is a button you can click on to move to the next lesson.

Videos are in english, quite easy to understand for non native speakers (by the way, Yvonnick’s french accent is quite strong🙂 ). Examples and scales generally include a backing track.

On top of instrument practice, musical reading, musical ear and harmony training (and even stretching go get physically and mentally prepared to practice your harp !), you’ll find quizz and challenges (like the « transcription challenge », that invite the player to transcribe a melody from scratch or even a master’s chorus) that provide a dynamic learning experience.

Subscribers can also post their own video in order to get a feedback from Yvonnick, which is really a killing feature.

On top of that, subscribers have access to a forum, to chat with each others or with Yvonnick.

You can also set your own learning objective and framework, and get a final certification : basically, you follow a series of courses and then you post your own videos to get an assessment and eventually your certification if you pass the test. All subscribers are allowed to follow the courses, but only annual members can apply for certification.

This online course website is a must for any harmonica player willing to invest some time on a regular basis, with some guidance and feedback. Whatever their level.

Even if the site is supposed to be « chromatic harp oriented », the musical content is meaningful for any soloist, especially for diatonic harp players, if they can go chromatic on their diatonic of course.

This is great news to have such a modern, comprehensive and relevant new online course website in our harmonica worldwide community !

Laurent Vigouroux