June (Will): Harmonica for Health

How heart surgery as a baby led to a career as a harmonica player

How did I start playing harmonica? I was prescribed it by a doctor. 

When I was just four days old, I had open heart surgery. I was born with a condition called Pulmonary Atresia, which meant that I was born without my pulmonary valve. In a pioneering operation at the time, surgeons created a new valve for me out of my own muscle. I can never thank those doctors enough, but not just for that reason. 

I actually took up the harmonica due to my health when I was ten years old, when a family friend and doctor (thanks Ted) and fellow harmonica player suggested that I give it a go to improve the breathing problems I was having as a result of my heart condition. 

So I gave it a go. And boy did I go for it. Almost immediately, I felt totally affiliated with the instrument; I absolutely loved the sound of it. Much to the bemusement of my poor parents I started playing the harmonica up to four hours a day - and to this day, am completely self-taught. This instrument felt so natural - it was absolutely brilliant! I had already played music a little bit but I enjoyed this music so much that I decided then and there: this is what I want to do. 

I started picking out tunes on the harmonica - folk tunes, then 1920s jazz music, starting on the diatonic harmonica and not long afterwards taking up the chromatic harmonica. I ended up learning them pretty much at the same time, which means one now doesn’t feel easier or harder. The instruments ultimately transformed my breathing issues growing up. I would say, thanks to the harmonica, I now have excellent breath control; 80% of, or 85% of playing is breath control - in the same way that when playing melodeon, the bellow control is crucial. From that perspective, I see them as the same instrument. 

It is strange to think that without my health condition, I maybe wouldn’t have taken up the harmonica, but this is the story that led to my career as a professional harmonica player, and for that I am eternally grateful.