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Wim Dijkgraaf

World class jazz harmonica player, educator & innovator.

About Me

World class jazz harmonica player, educator and innovator Wim Dijkgraaf (born the 4th of october 1970 in The Netherlands) has an acadamic background as a composer of contemporary classical music.

Inspired by Kenny Werner’s publications on Effortless Mastery, Wim is widely recognized as an innovator in the field of effortless harmonica playing and as such is by the age of 40 already an influential point of reference for many younger harmonica players today.

Toots Thielemans certainly was an important source of inspiration when Wim started playing the harmonica at the age of 19. But overtime he developed his own playing style and a highly personal sound that he is so well know for today.

Besides the sound of his harmonica, his approach towards improvisation and note choice certainly is remarkable too. Inspired by composers like Olivier Messiaen and Béla Bartók, Wim creates melodic phrases that sound modern and sometimes intellectual yet lyrical, romantic and always highly accessible. It is in his way of improvising that a strong background in classical composition becomes immediately clear; the art of effortlessly constructing original material out of instantly invented small musical building blocks.