Harmonica Parkinson's Project

THE HARMONICA PARKINSON’S PROJECT is a complete guide for people with Parkinson's Disease and care partners to learn how to play harmonica to aid in maintaining and/or improving speech.  This channel has corresponding video lessons from this book and additional free video lessons of popular songs. This project was birthed out of the Harmonica for Improved Speech for Parkinsons Study.  The concept of our project is that it is well known that people with PD can have speech difficulties as the disease progresses, including vocal intensity/loudness, pitch, and articulation. Breath control, volume, pitch, and articulation are also the key factors taught in playing harmonica. As an adjunct to speech therapy, we believe that by learning and playing harmonica, people with PD can improve their speech and saliva management as well as garner other benefits, including social interaction from being in a group and learning to play a musical instrument.