I Don't Suck

On a whim I decided to take a community education class on how to play the harmonica blues. I bought a harmonica (10 hole in the key of G) in August but never tried blowing it until I got to the class.  I walk into the high school music room. My instructor is there with 9 other students. Three of us are female and the rest are males. We sit in chairs while we are told how to hold the darn thing in our left hand. Our instructor tells us to breathe through the instrument.  He tells us not to blow or suck but just to breathe. I do it and the sounds come out pretty nice.  After a while though you start to feel deprived of oxygen, as if swimming or suffering from bronchitis. When that happens we are to just drop our lower jaw and breathe in over the top of the harmonica.  He shows us how to hold it tilted downward so the saliva doesn't clog the reeds.  He asks us to practice playing the second hole and having just one note come out.  I try.  I get a chord. I can't get it. Other people are playing one note but not me.  He decided to go around the room and have each person try in by themselves and give individual instruction.  One guy gets it right away. Another man struggles for a long time. When he comes to me I am playing a chord. He suggests I pull the harmonica a little farther away from my mouth.  It works! I say, "I got it!" into the harmonica and that sounds really funny.  He shows us how to move back and forth on the harmonica by pushing it with our left or right hand.  He asks us to practice playing each note separately and then playing, "Mary Had A Little Lamb."  After class I go home and soon I can play each note separately. I can play "Mary Had A Little Lamb."  I look up other songs to play and soon I am playing "Turkey in the Straw" and "Swing Low Sweet Chariot."  I don't suck at the harmonica!  Fancy that!  I think I sound pretty good for a beginner.