So, what is German by Mundharmonika?
It's a way to impress your friends, or simply
waste time you'll never get back. Depends
on how you look at it.
However, in the interest of cultural
enlightenment, and since I sell
German-made harmonicas, I offer the free
German by Harmonica program, where you
can learn German harmonica-related terms.
The Germans have weighed in with
corrections, but say it won't be funny to the
Germans if I make them. In an effort to
improve Germano-American relations, I have
found a compromise and am putting their
corrections in red type. This whole page will
probably be in red type before I'm done.
You could go around using phrases like,
''Wie geht es Ihrem Seydel Schallrichter?"
Which, hopefully, means ''How's y'all's
Seydel megaphone doing?''
My German grammar isn't perfect, but I'll try
not to have you saying anything that will get
your face slapped, although I made a great
effort to learn all those
get-your-face-slapped German words and
phrases when I was going to school in
Austria in the 1990s.
I never was fond of all these noun genders,
die, der and das in German. I've included them
with some words, the ones I don't know, I've
left that out. One thing I do like about the
language is that they have a pronoun for y'all.
The Harmonica Verb conjugation table lists
the present perfect tense. Officially, it's a
present tense, but used to describe things
that happened in the past.
''Ihr haben gespielt'' means ''Y'all have
played.''
It's a way to impress your friends, or simply
waste time you'll never get back. Depends
on how you look at it.
However, in the interest of cultural
enlightenment, and since I sell
German-made harmonicas, I offer the free
German by Harmonica program, where you
can learn German harmonica-related terms.
The Germans have weighed in with
corrections, but say it won't be funny to the
Germans if I make them. In an effort to
improve Germano-American relations, I have
found a compromise and am putting their
corrections in red type. This whole page will
probably be in red type before I'm done.
You could go around using phrases like,
''Wie geht es Ihrem Seydel Schallrichter?"
Which, hopefully, means ''How's y'all's
Seydel megaphone doing?''
My German grammar isn't perfect, but I'll try
not to have you saying anything that will get
your face slapped, although I made a great
effort to learn all those
get-your-face-slapped German words and
phrases when I was going to school in
Austria in the 1990s.
I never was fond of all these noun genders,
die, der and das in German. I've included them
with some words, the ones I don't know, I've
left that out. One thing I do like about the
language is that they have a pronoun for y'all.
The Harmonica Verb conjugation table lists
the present perfect tense. Officially, it's a
present tense, but used to describe things
that happened in the past.
''Ihr haben gespielt'' means ''Y'all have
played.''
| German by Mundharmonika Vocabulary From Blasen to Ziehen and beyond For non-native speaker pronunciation, click play: Blasen blow (see conjugation table). (Das) Buckeye Mundharmonika Festival the annual harmonica festival in Columbus, Ohio. Bending same in both languages. Buchenholzmundharmonikakanzellenkörper In German, you can just make words up by putting together a bunch of words. Seriously, they do it all the time, that's why you see some German words that are a mile long. The word above means beechwood harmonica comb. Buchenholz is beechwood, Kanzellenkoerper is harmonica comb. The Germans say this is fine and I, seriously, just made this word up by slinging a bunch of words together. However, Teilverschraubtestimmplatte ist verboten. They say you can string nouns together to infinity and beyond, but you can't have an adjective in your new word. Since adjectives modify nouns, that's their job, you'd think you could. But you can't. Chromatische chromatic. Dritte Position third position. Edelstahlstimmzungen Stainless steel reeds. Another one of those words where you put a bunch of words together to make one. Erste Position straight harp. (die) Feinstimmung fine tuning Feuchtigkeitsunempfindlich unsealed wood combs like the Marine Band have problems with this, it means being impervious to moisture. Originally, I said it means being sensitive to moisture. A minor detail. Andi of Peine, Germany, recommends the following: ''Feuchtigkeitsempfin dlich = unsealed wood combs like the Marine Band have problems with this, it means sensitivity to moisture or: Feuchtigkeitsunempf indlich = unsealed wood combs like the Marine Band have problems with this, it means no sensitivity to moisture.'' Kanzellenkörper harmonica comb. Kanzellenöffnungen holes in U.S. English, channels in British English. Klangfülle amount of volume your harmonica has. Nope. Germans say this means the amount of sound it has. I'm sure somebody understands the difference. Kunststoff something I'm not crazy about in a harmonica comb. Plastic. Löseabstand gapping (Der) Luftverlust - Something you don't want in a harmonica - it means air loss. Mund mouth Mundstück Mouthpiece. :Literally ''mouth stick.'' The German visitors immediately took me to task on that definition. They say it literally means ''mouth piece.'' I think maybe ''Stock'' is the word for stick. Mundharmonika harmonica. Positionen positions. Pufferhülse The little plastic thingies that protects the chromatic's slide from hitting the mouthpiece screw. Quintenzirkel circle of fifths.When you hear me pronounce this on the audio, I really messed the ''Q'' sound up. Nobody's perfect. Schalldecke coverplate Schalltrichter literally means ''acoustic horn.'' Megaphone. Septakkord Seventh chord. Spielen- to play (see harmonica verb conjugation table). Spieleigenschaften how your harmonica plays. Stimmplatten reedplates. Stimmung reeds or tuning. Teilverschraubte Stimmplatten reedplate that is held with both nails and screws. I originally had this as one word, but the Germans called me on it. It has to be two words. ''Buchenholzmundharmonikakanzellenkörper,'' they say however, is perfectly fine. Insert any Mark Twain quote about the German language here: Teuer expensive. Not something you usually hear about Seydel. Ventilsatz set of windsavers. I pronounced this one wrong, too. The ''V'' in German is like the letter ''V'' and the letter ''F'' fused together. It's weird. Ziehen draw (see conjugation table). Zweite Position second position, cross harp. |
| Harmonica Verb Conjugation Table Blasen (to blow Spielen (to play) Ziehen (to draw [as in harmonica]) |
|
|
|
If you would like to perfect your
harmonica German, the Seydel Sound
Check instruction kit can help. The
book and CD are in both German and
English.
harmonica German, the Seydel Sound
Check instruction kit can help. The
book and CD are in both German and
English.
| Copyright 2008 Elk River Harmonicas |
Raves for German by Mundharmonika from folks
who actually can speak the language and were nice
enough to help me find the errors:
From Andi of Peine, Germany:
''Grossen Respekt für Dein sehr gutes Deutsch !!
Deine Konjugationstabelle ist perfekt. Ich habe keinen einzigen Fehler
darin gefunden. In dem 'German by Mundharmonika Vocabulary
From Blasen to Ziehen and beyond' sind zwei kleine Fehler''
From Heiner, the Spiral guy:
''In the Harmonica Verb Conjugation Table everything is correct except the
tense in column 4 isn't past tense but present perfect.''
From Arnd:
''Dave, your funpage will surely be much less of fun to us Germans if you
added all these corrections so I sincerely hope you will not find the time to
do this…;-)''
who actually can speak the language and were nice
enough to help me find the errors:
From Andi of Peine, Germany:
''Grossen Respekt für Dein sehr gutes Deutsch !!
Deine Konjugationstabelle ist perfekt. Ich habe keinen einzigen Fehler
darin gefunden. In dem 'German by Mundharmonika Vocabulary
From Blasen to Ziehen and beyond' sind zwei kleine Fehler''
From Heiner, the Spiral guy:
''In the Harmonica Verb Conjugation Table everything is correct except the
tense in column 4 isn't past tense but present perfect.''
From Arnd:
''Dave, your funpage will surely be much less of fun to us Germans if you
added all these corrections so I sincerely hope you will not find the time to
do this…;-)''
"Du Liegst...'' song played on Seydel 1847
Grandpa Cecil Payne And Dave Payne Sr.
German By Mundharmonika
Elk River
Harmonicas
Dave Payne Sr., owner
Harmonicas
Dave Payne Sr., owner
Welcome to
The complete Seydel line and home of the Elk River Special
 |  |  |  |
 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |