The best harmonica to start with is usually the Golden Melody by Hohner. The wood portion of a harmonica can swell and cut your gums and tounge (beleive me, this HURTS). The Golden Melody is made of metal and plastic, which eliminates that problem and its easy to bend notes on it (a trick that takes some practice to learn). Its also has a very good tone. Its a little more expensive than most harmonicas, but its worth it.
There are 2 main types of harmonicas. Diatonic harmonicas like the Golden Melody, and chromatic harmonicas. Diatonics (the kind most people envision when the think about a harmonica) are less expensive and easier to play. The problem is that they can only be played in one key. They do not contain all 13 notes (8 whole steps, 5 half steps) found in an octave, but rather they only contain the notes found in the major scale of their key. Chromatics can be played in any key, but are much more expensive and much, much harder to learn to play.
A Golden Melody should run you around 25$. I would buy one in the key of C (great for cross harping the blues or for folk tunes). If your boyfriend is into blues, I would also recommend looking into a b flat one, but C should be your choice if you are only buying one.
I used to play the harminica a lot. I learned to play on Golden Melodys. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions.
