How to Play the Harmonica

By jessejwk in LivingMusic1,804,57626037

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Introduction: How to Play the Harmonica

How to Play the Harmonica

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After searching around on instructables, I didn't find any complete harmonica tutorials. There are quite a
few good ones around the internet, but I thought there should be an instructable.

So. The harmonIca is one of the easiest instruments to play, it sounds really cool, and can be used for a
variety of musical styles. All right, maybe not too many musical styles, but it's fun to play anyway. So.
Here we go.

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Step 1: Types of Harmonicas

Types of Harmonicas

Types of Harmonicas

Types of Harmonicas

Types of Harmonicas

Diatonic: This is the most common, simplest type of harmonica. You'll probably want to start here. A
diatonic harmonica has 10 holes. It is built to play a major, diatonic scale. Additional notes can be played
by "bending" (explained later) and different scales can be obtained by playing in different positions
(explained later).

Chromatic: These are fancy harmonicas. They have a little button on the side. When you press this
button, whatever note you are playing moves up a half step. This allows you to play every note in the
musical scale, a chromatic scale. Although they offer more versatility, they are often harder to play,
especially if you are trying to bend. Not recommended for blues.
Tremolo and Octave Harmonicas: These harmonicas have a double row of holes. On a tremolo, the
notes are tuned slightly apart, but almost the same, creating a cool "tremolo" vibrating effect. On an
octave harmonica, the notes are tuned an octave (8 notes) apart, creating a fuller sound. Compare to a
12-string guitar. Both are sort of rarely used.

Special tunings: Some harmonicas come with different scales like minor scales and scales made for
playing in more than one key.

Bottom Line: Start with a diatonic harmonica, preferably in the key of C (as this is the easiest key to
understand).

Here are some pictures of each type.

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Step 2: Brands of Harmonicas

Brands of Harmonicas

The most common brands are Hohner, Hering, Lee Oskar, Suzuki, Seydel, Bushman and Huang.

Hohner is the one you hear about most, as it is the most common. However, that does not make it the
best. Hohner produces lots of different harmonicas, some good and some not so good. Be sure to
explore a range of harmonica brands.

For a beginner, I would personally recommend Lee Oskar. They are very easy to play and sound great.
But I'm not saying that's all you can use, there are definitely other equally good harmonicas. Take a look
at this chart for more info on good harmonicas for beginners.

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Step 3: How the Harmonica Works

How the Harmonica Works

If you were to blow into the holes of a harmonica, one by one from left to right, you would hear the 1, 3,
and 5 notes of a major chord (C, E, G in the key of C) repeated repeated three times (as well as one high
C at the end). Alone, this won't do you much good, as it's only one chord.

That's why playing the harmonica involves a combination of inhalingandexhaling (also called blowing
and drawing). If you blow into hole 4 on a C harmonica, you'll hear a C. Now inhale–—the note moves
up to a D. Blow into the next hole and it's an E. Inhale, F. Blowing into hole 6 produces a G, and inhaling
makes an A. At this point you can probably guess what come next if you blow into hole 7: a B, right?
Wrong! If you blow into hole 7, you will hear a C. You have to inhale to produce the B. As you can see,
there isn't a set pattern to the blows and draws of a harmonica.

The three main oddities are holes 2, 7, and 10. In holes 7-9, the pattern mentioned above is changed so
inhaling moves the note down instead of up.

Sound confusing? It is. The diagram above should make things much clearer.

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Step 4: Techniques for Playing

Techniques for Playing

And now comes a problem that many beginning harmonica players encounter. You look at the chart on
the previous step, say, "That seems easy enough," blow into your harmonica, and three notes come out.
Here's how to just play one note.

There are two main methods:

Pucker method: To play like this, start with your lips relaxed. If you exhale or inhale, you will hear
multiple notes. Now push your lips outward, almost as if you were trying to kiss someone. Experiment
until you can get a single, clear note. Now stay like that. It may be helpful to think of your lips as being
over or around the harmonica, rather than just on it. If you take away the harmonica and you look
utterly ridiculous, you're doing it right.

This may seem hard at first, but once you get the hang of it (which shouldn't take long), it's a very
effective method.

Tongue method: Relax your mouth so it is covering multiple holes, then cover the ones you don't want
with your tongue. This technique is often used to "split" notes, allowing you to play two notes that
aren't directly next to each other by putting your tongue in between them.
Which method you use is totally up to you.

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Step 5: Try a Song

Try a Song

Try a Song

Try a Song

Here are some beginning harmonica tabs from Dave Gage's website. B means blow, D means draw.

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Step 6: Bending - Part 1

Bending - Part 1

Bending is something that's hard to get at first, but easy to do once you get it. However, this is not
exactly a beginner technique. Make sure you can do everything mentioned previously, especially playing
single notes, before you attempt bends.

Bending is used to change the pitch of a note. While inhaling or exhaling, you change the shape of your
mouth, changing the speed at which the reed is vibrating and the pitch of the note that plays. Bends are
primarily used when playing blues harmonica.

The most common bends are draw bends, especially on the lower notes. However, there are also blow
bends, overblows, and overdraws.

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Step 7: Bending - Part 2

Bending - Part 2

Now to the actual technique. Bending is very hard to explain in words, so I will quote from some online
tutorials. Be sure to check out this site for detailed instructions on how to bend each hole and some very
nice animations.
From http://www.hoerl.com/Music/harmon5.html:

Playing "bends" using the TILT Method

Start with the #4 draw (you can pick any note to start with but the general consensus seems to be that
#4 draw is easiest). Remember that you must change the angle of the airflow over the reed to "bend"
the note. So let's cheat a little bit and alter the angle of the harmonica rather than alter the airflow angle
by changing your mouth, tongue, and throat. Hold the harmonica by the ends and then while playing a
clean #4 draw. Tilt the back of the harmonica up towards your nose. Make sure that when you tilt the
harmonica up that you continue to draw the air through the harmonica though you hadn't tilted it up.

- Do not let your head, mouth, and tongue follow the angle of the harmonica with your airstream, or you
negate the effect of tilting the harmonica in the first place.

- REMEMBER: You must change the angle of airflow across the reed to make the note bend. This trick of
physically tilting the harmonica up, will create the same change of angle that you must eventually learn
to do with your mouth, tongue, and embouchure. If the harmonica pops out of your mouth, start over
and make sure you have the harmonica placed far enough into your mouth so that it won't pop out.

- TILTING TIPS: The reed in each hole requires a different angle to achieve a bend. Generally speaking
these angles look like this:

Hole #4 draw takes about a 45 degree change of airflow angle.

Hole #2 draw takes almost a 75 to 90 degree change of airflow angle

to get it to bend down a whole step.

Hole #3 draw takes an angle somewhere in between 45 and 90 degrees.

Experiment with the tilting technique until you get a change in pitch. When you start getting a "bend"
stay with it until you can make a noticeable change in pitch. If you just can't seem to get #4 draw to
"bend"....go ahead and try a different hole. If one practice session doesn't yield any "bends", call it a day
and come back tomorrow. But whatever you do, don't give up.

Playing "bends" Without Tilting the Harmonica (recommended)

After you have reached the point of being able to get "bends" using the tilting method, its time to start
learning how to get the same sound without tilting. Tilting is OK to get the idea of "bends", but you
won't be able to play very many songs if you're constantly tilting the harmonica around. You now must
learn to change the shape of your mouth and tongue to simulate the same change in airflow that you
got by tilting the harmonica. This is the most difficult harmoinca technique to describe in words (and
different people describe the same process differently) but here goes.

-Start by playing a single, clean, draw note.

-Push your lower jaw forward just a tiny bit.

-Push the tip of your tongue against your front bottom teeth.

-Arch your tongue towards the roof of your mouth.. (but don't arch so much that you cut off your
ariflow).

-Draw (pull the air) a bit harder to compensate for the sharp airflow angle caused by your jaw and
tongue changes.

-Caution: Don't draw too hard or you will move past "draw bend" to "overdraw bend".

-Do 2,3,4, and 5 as close to simultaneously as possible.

-Listen for the change in pitch (the "bend").

-Congratulations!

-Immediately after the bend, relax you jaw relax your tongue

-Return your tongue to it's regular place (at the bottom of your mouth)

Continue the draw, and the note should return to it's usual clean single note sound.

There you have it. "Bending" a note only requires two things: good breath control and the ability to
"shift" or change the airflow.

Below is a diagram of which notes can and can't be bent.

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Step 8: Playing in Different Positions - Intro

Playing in Different Positions - Intro

Your harmonica might have more than one key printed on it. On one side it probably says C, but on the
other side, it might say G. Which key is it in? Your harmonica is technically in C, but you can play a
different type of scale in the key of G.

The natural position of the harmonica (in this case, the key of C) is called first position or straight harp.
Second position, or cross harp, is the key a fifth up from first position (G).

Why use different positions? Two reasons. First, they allow you to play in multiple keys on one
harmonica. Second, it allows you two play scales other than the standard major scale. For example, if I
wanted to play a blues scale in C, I would use a harmonica in the key of F.
Each position is a fifth up from the next. So, on a C harmonica, 1st position would be in the key of C, 2nd
in G, 3rd in D, 4th in A, and 5th in E. You will rarely use anything beyond fifth position, and you will
usually stick to 1, 2, and 4.

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Step 9: Second Position

Second Position

Second position, as mentioned earlier, is in the key of G. It is primarily used for blues harmonica.

To play a blues scale, use this tablature:

You can also play a mixolydian scale (G A B C D E F G) and a major pentatonic scale (G A B D E G) but
those aren't as nearly as common.

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Step 10: Third Position

Third Position

Third Position

Third position is a fifth up from second position. On a C harmonica, it would be in the key of D. You can
use third position to play a blues scale or a Dorian minor scale (which is almost a minor scale and can be
used to play a lot of minor things. The seventh note of the scale is just sharp). See tabs below.

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Step 11: Fourth Position

Fourth Position

Fourth position is a fifth up from third position. On a C harmonica, it would be in the key of A. You can
use fourth position to play a minor scale or a minor pentatonic scale, which is one note short of a blues
scale (A C D E G A). If you get good at higher bends (which are advanced) you can add the Eb on the
higher scale and make it a blues scale. But it's mostly used for minor scale. See tabs below.

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Step 12: Fifth Position

Fifth Position

Fifth position is less common than the rest, and it's about as far as you'll ever need to go. It's in the key
of E. With a little bending, you can play a blues scale or a minor pentatonic scale, or even a phrygian
minor scale, although all these scales in various modes (that's what those long fancy words are called)
are a bit outside the scope of most harmonica music. To play a phrygian minor scale (or any other mode
previously mentioned) just go straight up the harmonica note by note starting and ending on the note of
whichever key you are in. So a phrygian minor scale on a C harmonica would be E F G A B C D E. Below is
the tab for a blues scale. To turn a blues scale into a minor pentatonic scale, remove the fourth note.

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Step 13: Collecting Harmonicas

Collecting Harmonicas

If you really start getting serious about the harmonica and you want to start jamming with people and
playing music, you're going to need some harmonicas in different keys. Start with C of course. Then, if
you want more, you can get them in as many keys as you want. I would stick to natural keys (plain lettes,
e.g. C instead of C#) with the exception of B. Get a Bb instead, it's more common and allows you to play
blues in F instead of F#. I have harmonicas in A, Bb, C, D, E, F, and G, as well as a chromatic that
someone gave me.

*Here's a hint: if you happen to get Lee Oskar harmonicas (although you can probably try this even if
you don't), call Lee Oskar and ask a harmonica question. When I did, they asked me if I wanted them to
send me some information, and I said yes. If they don't ask, you can probably ask yourself. Anyway, this
"information" includes a very nice case that holds 7 harmonicas, for free. Pictured below.*

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Step 14: Cleaning

Cleaning

As you play, you'll notice that gunk is going to start building up in the harmonica. This may not affect
anything, and overcleaning can be bad, but cleaning occasionally is good.

Cleaning Without Disassembling

If your harmonica has a plastic comb (as opposed to wood or metal) you can run room temperature
water through it and let it dry.

Disassembling
For a more thorough cleaning, you can unscrew the cover plate, take out the comb, and clean it with
water, soap, and an old toothbrush. But make sure you get all the soap off, you don't want it tasting like
soap. If you have a wood comb, just rub it with the tooth brush. Don't use soap or water. You can use
soap and water on metal, but make sure to dry thoroughly so it doesn't rust.

You can clean the cover plates by the same methods.

The reed plates can be cleaned the same way, minus the toothbrush.

-There are also various cleaning kits you can buy, with brushes and products made for cleaning
harmonicas.

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Step 15: References and Links

References and Links

For more information:

riccardos.org/harmonicas - explains the theory in more detail, good for scales

www.davegage.com/tips.html - the basics. also has a tabs page.