Chromatic — which can play all notes in the chromatic scale and are mainly used in Jazz and Classical music. The diatonic scale — contains only the notes of a given musical key. The chromatic scale — contains all notes, meaning all tones and semi-tones. Richter tuning is the name given to a major scale tuned harmonica… As opposed to alternate tunings, such as minor harmonicas. So how do they work? Positions In addition to playing in C major on a C harmonica, you CAN play in other keys on this same harmonica, referred to as positions by harmonica players.
It also is the most used position for playing blues. It is used for minor-key folk songs and sometimes blues. Up next… Tuning Apart from their preset key. Now, just as I advised you to choose a key of C diatonic harmonica as your first choice… In the case you want a minor tuned harp, I furthermore advise you to go with its relative minor, which would be a minor A tuned harp.
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You inhale through it or exhale through it and it makes notes. You change the shape of your mouth, move your tongue around, open and close your throat, breathe with different pressures and attacks, and the notes it makes changes.
You do it enough and you figure out what makes what happen. A harmonica consists of two reed plates, the top one for blow reeds and the bottom one for draw reeds, which are attached to a comb and shielded with top and bottom covers. Each reed plate has different length slots over which reeds of corresponding length are fixed at one end.
An air stream passes over the reeds into or out of chambers in the comb and causes the reeds to vibrate. This configuration of reeds puts the harmonica in the class of so-called free reed instruments. Normal blow notes are caused by the upper reeds crossing their slots when the air stream enters through the holes in the comb, flows over the inner reeds, and exits through the slots. The reeds move into their slots, stopping the air stream, and then out the other side of the reed plate, which lets the air flow again.
As the reed deflects it gains energy like stretching a spring or a rubber band. When the air pressure is released after the reed passes through its slot the energy in the reed causes it to spring back toward its starting position, once again crossing its slot and cutting off the air stream.
This process repeats while the air stream is maintained. Normal draw notes work similarly but are caused by the lower reeds crossing their slots when the air stream flows over the outer reeds, enters through the slots, and exits through the holes in the comb.
This action of the reeds where they first move into their slots is traditionally called a closing note. Bends to change the pitch of closing notes are called closing bends. 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. Here are some beginning harmonica tabs from Dave Gage's website. B means blow, D means draw. 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.
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. 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. 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" 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, it's 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 harmonica technique to describe in words and different people describe the same process differently but here goes.
There you have it. 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. You will rarely use anything beyond fifth position, and you will usually stick to 1, 2, and 4. Second position, as mentioned earlier, is in the key of G. It is primarily used for blues harmonica.
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