Where to start as a beginner?

Hello John. Glad you found us.
Often folk music is played in first position. That means you are playing the C harmonica in the key of C. Often blues is played in second position. That means you are playing the C harmonica in the key of G. Much online instruction is for second position blues playing.

The blow notes on your C harmonica are C E G C E G C E G C
CEG is a C chord. If you blow on any group of notes you will get a C chord.

The low draw (inhale) notes are D G B D F
GBD is a G chord. GBDF is a G7 chord. Including the low D note to get DGBD is still just a G chord.

Blues players focus on the draw notes, the G chord, and play the C harmonica in the key of G.

Folk players often play songs in the same key as the harp. They will often play these melodies from holes 4 to 10 and use holes 1 to 3 to add chords or harmony to the melody. There are notes missing in the first three holes because they are for chords. This makes it difficult to play some melodies on the low end. Sometimes notes can be bent to get missing notes.

Beginning on blow 4 you can play a complete major scale. The C major scale has these notes: C D E F G A B C
To play those notes you will play 4 -4 5 -5 6 -6 -7 7 where - means inhale, no sign means blow.
Practice that scale up and down. Those notes can make a lot of music. Notice that on holes 4, 5, and 6 the pattern going up is blow/draw but at 7 the pattern is draw/blow. This is not a defect. This is by design to keep the blow notes in the form of a C chord. Some folk players will play several notes at once to make a chord and then use the tongue to block out the notes on the left, leaving only the highest pitched note to the right. This is then the melody note. By moving around the harp and blowing and drawing a melody is played. At the same time the tongue is taken off the harp to add chords and rhythm.

Here is a simple tune called Lightly Row:

6 5 5 -5 -4 -4

4 -4 5 -5 6 6 6

6 5 5 -5 -4 -4

4 5 6 6 4

-4 -4 -4 -4 -4 5 -5

5 5 5 5 5 -5 6

6 5 5 -5 -4 -4

4 5 6 6 4

Here is an example of this simple melody. www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pUugVUxciU

John, welcome to the harmonica. It’s a simple little instrument anyone would think easy to play. Well it is easy once you learn all about different blowing techniques, a numbe of effects, how to get music or tabs of songs, different keys of music. Yes a lot you can learn but do it gradually. Start by practicing blowing one note then moving to the next. Then try moving from one hole to 2 or 3 up the scale. Many beginners have started off with enthusiasm then dropped out rather than persevering. It is simple but takes practice, we can give advice but it’s up to you to find those holes hidden in your mouth. Just remember there a thousands of people playing the harmonica so it’s not difficult but it takes practice. Don’t rush it just explore and practice.