The songs of Part One can be played after the beginning student has completed Lessons One through Eight of the Progressive Harmonica Method. These Part One songs are rhythmically simple, with only one note per beat, and do not require the ability to obtain clear single notes. The number of notes used in each song is limited.
For ease of reading, vertical lines known as "bar lines" divide the musical notation into short, easily readable segments known as bars.
As in all of the songs, the chords that a guitarist or keyboard player could use to accompany you when playing a key of C harmonica are written beneath the harmonica notation.
This simple ditty sounds equally good when played with single notes or chords. It is most often played in a gentle, flowing, manner, rather than with the staccato effects of puffing or tongueing.
A "tie" is placed beneath the last two notes of each line. Ties are used when a note must be held across bar lines, to indicate that the player must play the note, without break or interruption, for as many beats as notated for both notes. Therefore, the 5i at the end of the first line is held for four beats, not played twice for two beats each.
The first harmonica verse of this song, as played on the recording, is simply the traditional song How Dry I Am.
The second harmonica verse adds short "licks" or "riffs" to the melody of the first verse. These occur in the silent spaces between parts of the melody.
Licks or riffs are the short segments of music that a blues or jazz improvisor would insert between the words of a melody, as further discussed in Progressive Blues Harmonica and the Progressive Blues Harmonica Lick and Solo Book. In this case, the licks added require a jump to the highest note of the harmonica, which adds drama to this simple song.
This favorite sea shanty requires no introduction.
One of the simpler works of composer Johann Strauss.
