How to bend a note on Harmonica? Bending is a basic diatonic harmonica playing technique used to produce notes not otherwise available in the basic tuning of the harp, and they are also used to provide various sliding-note effects.  Bends are, in large part, what give the diatonic harp its unique character, and are intimately related to the blues tradition.

Bending, whether draw bends or blow bends, produce notes lower in pitch than the natural, unbent note.  The amount you can bend a note depends on the pitches of the two reeds in the hole.  The higher pitch note in the hole can be bent down to just below a half step above the lower pitch note in the hole. 

For example, the notes on a C harp in hole 2 are: blow-E, draw-G.  The higher G note can be bent down to Gb and F–and just a little lower.  It is best to only bend down to the desired note, and not further, in order to minimize stress on the reeds.  You can use a piano, guitar, pitch pipe, or electronic tuner to check that you’re hitting the correct pitch.

Bending is not something that is easy to describe how to do–and it is difficult to show because all the movements are hidden inside the mouth and throat.  It takes practice to be able to do bends at all, and lots more practice to do them well.  There are draw bends available on holes 1 through 6, and blow bends available on holes 7 through 10, each of which require different playing techniques.

  To make matters more challenging, different key harps require different bending techniques, depending on the pitch range of the harp.  Lower key harps (e.g. A, Ab, G, and low F) require more mouth/throat/tongue movement than the same holes on higher key harps (e.g. C, D, E, and F).

Bends are intially quite challenging–but they are quite fun, and eventually become second nature.  Learning your bends not only gives you more notes and effects, it gives you more control over your notes, air stream, resonance, and tone.

So, celebrate when you finally get your first bends!  But remember–that’s only the beginning!

How to bend a note on Harmonica?

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What is a bend?

Bending allows us to play notes that wouldn’t be available otherwise. Diatonic harmonicas have several missing notes (tones in the musicial scale that don’t appear naturally on the instrument) so bending helps us to fill in these gaps.

Bends are a distinctive part of the blues sound. Bending works by making both the blow and draw reeds vibrate simultaneously to produce a note which sits between the pitch of each indivudal reed.

How do you get a bend?

Bending requires a change to the oral cavity (space in your mouth) to allow a lower note to resonate. This can take some getting used to. It feels silly at first, but practising moving the shape of your mouth from an ‘AH’ or ‘EE’ to an ‘OO’ shape is a good place to start:

Now try sliding the tip of your tongue directly back in your mouth to create a humped shape. This helps angle the airflow so that both the blow and draw reed vibrate.

Finding the ‘sweet spot’

The two steps above are all that’s needed to achieve a bend, but it can take a frustratingly long time to make this work. You need to experiment with slow changes of shape and position to find the sweet spot where it comes together and the note moves.

When this happens, stay where you are! A couple of other ways to conceptualise the technique are (a) to say ‘KUH’ as you play a note, and (b) to think of playing an inward whistle which gets lower and lower.

Which notes will bend?

Holes 1-6 will bend on the draw notes. Holes 7-10 will bend on the blow notes. We tend to learn the draw bends first as they often come more easily (you’ll probably find hole 4 will work first). As you progress, you’ll learn to control these bends and use them as melodic notes. Here’s a diagram of the bends available on a C harmonica:

Note that each hole (and each key of harmonica) will feel different so you will need to adapt your technique to each situation. Good luck!

Draw Bends

Draw bends are available on holes 1 through 6–but hole 5 will not bend as much as a full half step.  Don’t try to bend lower than the note will go or you risk damaging the reeds.

Here are some tips for getting your first draw bends.

• First, be sure you can get a good, clean, pure, loud, single note before going any further!

Don’t even worry about bends if you can’t get a consistent pure single note.

• One good approach is to use the “lip block” embouchure. It helps you relax and get your mouth open, which helps improve your resonance and makes bending easier.
• While breathing in from your diaphragm, make “eeeeee” and “oooooh” sounds. Notice how your jaw drops on the “ooh” sound, and pay attention to the feeling in your throat. The bend happens when you go from “eeeeee” to “oooooh”.
  Try holes 2, 3, and 4 for your first bends.  The “Oh” should be deep with an open throat; try saying “orange”.  Your throat should be like the first “or” part.   Whisper it.  Orange.  Whisper it louder. 
  Whisper it breathing in.  Try bending with the mouth/throat position of the “Or” part.
• Make sure NO AIR leaks in through your nose.  This is very important.  If air leaks in through your nose it will be very very difficult to make the note bend.
• Make sure you have an air tight seal of your mouth on the harp.  Air leaks get in the way of bends, whatever their cause.
• Don’t try to force it.  Bending is essentially effortless.  If your mouth/throat/tongue shape are right the bend will naturally happen.  Think about holding an egg in your mouth during a bend.  Keep playing with the shape of your mouth and your tongue position.  Very minor changes in mouth/throat/tongue position make all the difference.
• Drop your draw and open up your vocal tract while continuting to draw air in smoothly–remember, don’t try to force it.
• Try whistling while breathing in.  Bend the pitch of your whistled note down.  That’s what it feels like to do draw bends.
• The tongue is the key (for beginners). Start with it flat and forward in your mouth. While drawing in with the “eeeee”, *slowly* pull it back, keeping the front low in the mouth, and humping it in the back. At some point the sound should begin to choke a little. That’s the crucial spot. Treat it like the “friction point” on a clutch car… if you move too fast you’ll stall the car–or miss the bend.  At that crucial spot, adjust your mouth position from “eeee” to “ooooh”.  At first, it may help to increase the air pressure a little. But, you don’t have to play loud or hard to get bends. You can bend notes playing quite softly.
• Breathe in while making a hard “K” sound. Notice where you make that sound in your throat. That’s one place in your vocal tract from which you can get a draw bend.
• Breathe from deep within your body–from your diaphragm. Feel your stomach push out a little bit. This will help your resonance and make bending easier.  Lie on your back and slowly breathe in.  Put your hand on your stomach and notice how it moves up and down–that’s the location of your diaphragm.  Draw in your air from there.
• Try different key harps.  The mouth position is different for different keys, and if you’re having trouble with one key another might work better.  For example, if you can’t get it on a C harp, try an A harp or a D harp.
• As they say, “Practice, practice, practice…”

It ain’t as easy as it looks! Don’t give up! It takes a while to get it!  And remember, don’t try it unless you can get consistent pure clean single notes–you have to master that first.

Blow Bends

Blow bends are normally learned after draw bends, because the low end of the harp (holes 1 through 6) are used more, especially by beginners, than the top end of the harp, holes 1 through 7, where the blow bends are available.  Note that hole 7 will not bend as much as a full half step, so don’t try to force it or you could damage the reed.

Blow bends are done by constricting the air stream by tiny movements toward the front of the tongue.

Start the natural blow note with your tongue flat in the bottom of your mouth.  Slowly, keeping the tongue flat, lift the tongue toward the roof of the mouth.  Keep the air stream constant, and where you feel the note start to choke–that’s the crucial spot. 

Very tiny changes to your tongue position cause the note to transition from the natural note to the bent note.  You have to experiment and remember your exact mouth position.  The vocal tract is more constricted in the mouth and throat for blow bends than for draw bends.

Try whistling a note and bending the pitch upwards.  A similar tongue movement happens when doing blow bends on the harp.

5 tips for bending notes

1. Move your mouth from an ‘AH’ to an ‘OO’ shape
2. Drag your tongue back into a humped shape
3. Say ‘KUH’ as you play a note
4. Slurp the air instead of allowing it to travel freely
5. Imagine an inward whistle that’s getting lower

Harmonica notes layout – Many beginning players are confused about harmonica notes, particularly since some of them are missing. This articles shows the notes on a harmonica, and the reasoning behind their layout.

Harmonica notes layout

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Chromatic Harmonica Note Layout

NOTE POSITIONS

The purpose of this article is to cover one and only one topic: what the NOTE POSITIONS are on a 16-HOLE CHROMATIC HARMONICA.

While there are 16 holes on a 16-hole chromatic harmonica, they don’t number the holes from 1-16 on the cover of the harmonica. Instead, they number the first FOUR holes with numbers 1-4, then start over again with #1 at hole 5 and go up to #12 on the 16^th hole.

Why do they do this? For many years, Chromatic Harmonicas had 12 holes, and many of the books were written explaining technique on a 12-holer.

Let’s give the 16 hole chromatic harmonica a QUICK GLANCE, before we get into detail on the notes available on each hole. Each hole has 4 reeds, so there are 64 tones total, and some are duplicates. You access those 4 notes per hole by the DRAW and the BLOW, with and without the slide in.

Pushing the slide in always raises the given note by one half tone.

THE NOTES REPEAT THE SAME PATTERN….4 TIMES

The single line chart below provides you the BLOW ONLY notes on a 16 hole chromatic. You’ll notice right away that the identical pattern of C E G C repeats itself 4 times. Because the pattern repeats every 4 holes, it makes it simpler for you to find notes.

4 NOTE PROGRESSION, BLOW ONLY

C

E

G

C

C

E

G

C

C

E

G

C

C

E

G

C

WHAT ARE THOSE NOTES…WHAT IS THE RANGE OF THIS INSTRUMENT?

The 16 hole chromatic harmonic has a larger range than a flute, a trumpet or a guitar, but less than a piano. Some of you have musical training, and you may be curious what the note range is on a 16-hole chromatic harmonica, in terms of a piano keyboard.

A 16 hole chromatic harmonica has a range from C3 which is the C below middle C on a piano, up to a D7. So it’s 4 octaves plus a C# and a D. That’s 4 octaves.

Harmonica’s makes sound both BLOWING and DRAWING IN AIR, these are called BLOWS and DRAWS. Here’s a complete note layout chart, I’ll explain it in detail.

Blow

C

E

G

C

C

E

G

C

C

E

G

C

C

E

G

C

Slide Out

Hole

1

2

3

4

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

Draw

D

F

A

B

D

F

A

B

D

F

A

B

D

F

A

B

16 Hole Chromatic, Key of C

Blow

C#

E#

G#

C#

C#

E#

G#

C#

C#

E#

G#

C#

C#

E#

G#

C#

Slide In

Hole

1

2

3

4

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

Draw

D#

F#

A#

C

D#

F#

A#

C

D#

F#

A#

C

D#

F#

A#

D

To read the top part of the chart above, start by reading the words, “Slide Out” which are in white letters on a black background on the second line. Next to the words “Slide Out”, you’ll see the word “HOLE” then numbers in the following sequence: 1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12. That center line of numbers tell you what hole to play on.

All the NOTE LETTER NAMES after the word BLOW are the notes you get when you blow in that numbered hole, again with the slide OUT, and down below, you get the NOTE LETTER NAMES you get on those same hole numbers when you DRAW breath in.

The chart just under this is similar, but it gives you the NOTE LETTER NAMES when the slide is pushed in. When you release the slide it moves back to its original position because it’s on a spring.

So: if you BLOW on hole #1 with the slide out, you get a C.

If you DRAW on hole #1 with the slide out, you get a D

If you BLOW on hole #1 with the SLIDE IN, you get a C# (also called a Db)

If you DRAW on hole #1 with the SLIDE IN, you get a D# (also called an Eb)

Then, if you blow on the 2^nd hole with the slide out you get an E, and so on.

The chart below has the same information in another layout, with all combined into one chart.

Hole

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

HOLE

°1

°2

°3

°4

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

Blow, Slide In

C#

F

G#

C#

C#

F

G#

C#

C#

F

G#

C#

C#

F

G#

C#

Blow, Slide Out

C

E

G

C

C

E

G

C

C

E

G

C

C

E

G

C

Draw, Slide Out

D

F

A

B

D

F

A

B

D

F

A

B

D

F

A

B

Draw, Slide In

D#

F#

A#

C

D#

F#

A#

C

D#

F#

A#

C

D#

F#

A#

D

Let’s go over the harmonica’s notes ONE HOLE AT A TIME.

HOLE #1…all the way at the left of your harmonica

On hole #1, which is all the way to the left side of the harmonica (if you hold it so the slide, thing you can push it and it comes back) is on the right, and the numbers visible on the top of the harmonica’s cover, you get 4 notes:

When you BLOW you get a C.

When you DRAW you get a C# (also goes by the name Db, same tone, different name)

When you BLOW WITH THE SLIDE IN YOU GET A C#

When you DRAW WITH THE SLIDE IN YOU GET A D

BIG HINT….. WHEN YOU PUSH THE SLIDE “IN” YOU GET THE NEXT TONE ½ STEP ABOVE WHERE YOU WERE…BLOW OR DRAW, all the way up and down the harmonica!

HOLE #2…the second hole

On hole #2 you get 3 different notes, 4 total:

When you BLOW you get an E.

When you DRAW you get an F.

When you BLOW WITH THE SLIDE IN YOU GET AN F, (yep, same as the draw just above in this list)

When you DRAW WITH THE SLIDE IN YOU GET AN F#/ also called a Gb

Why did they do that? Well, it means you can play an F on a blow or draw, and that comes in handy.

HOLE #3…third hole

On hole #3 you get 4 different notes:

When you BLOW you get a G.

When you DRAW you get an A.

When you BLOW WITH THE SLIDE IN YOU GET AN G#/ also called an Ab.

When you DRAW WITH THE SLIDE IN YOU GET AN A#/ also called a Bb.

HOLE #4…fourth hole

On hole #4 you get 3 different notes, 4 total:

When you BLOW you get a C.

When you DRAW you get a B.

When you BLOW WITH THE SLIDE IN YOU GET A C#/ also called Db

When you DRAW WITH THE SLIDE IN YOU GET a C

Why did they do that? Well, it means you can play a C as a blow or a draw, and that comes in handy.

THIS IDENTICAL PATTERN is found on actual holes 5-8, 9-12, and 13-16, with the exception that the draw with slide in on hole #16 is a D…they didn’t want to repeat the C as in the other octave groupings…you might need the D for something.

So, that’s the note layout chart for a 16 hole CHROMATIC HARMONICA.

HOW TO PLAY THE NOTES

You can play each note and say the note name, all the way up and down the harmonica. Or hunt for all the C’s, then all the D’s, etc.

One way to play all the tones is to play what’s called a CHROMATIC scale with all 12 tones.

C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G#, A, A#, B, C

Again, getting a half tone higher of any given note is easy on a chromatic harmonica…just push in the slide.

We will discuss this in another article and video, but some notes have more than one name, and are called ENHARMONIC.

C#/Db are the same tone, D#/Eb are the same tone, E#/F are the same tone, F#/Gb are the same tone, A#/Bb are the same tone, and B#/C are the same tone.

If you look at a piano keyboard and have someone give you the note names this will make sense, because those shared notes share the same physicial piano key.

That’s the 16 HOLE CHROMATIC HARMONICA note layout.

Diatonic Harmonica Note Layout

Here are pictures of a harp comb that shows where the notes are in a C and an F diatonic harmonica.

The holes are numbered 1-10, and the position of the hole number indicates the low note in each hole.  The blow notes are shown in the hole chambers toward the front edge of the comb, and the draw notes are shown at the rear of the chambers.  The notes in between the blow and draw notes in the chambers are the normal bent notes available in each hole.  The notes shown outside the chambers are the overbends, consisting of overblows in holes 1-6 and overdraws in holes 7-10.  Note that overbends are available in all holes, but only those that add unique notes have been shown.

The discontinuous line of hole numbers is shown to emphasize the point that the note relationships invert at hole 7.  That is, on holes 1-6 the blow notes are lower than the draw notes–but on holes 7-10 the draw notes are lower than the blow notes.

Here are pictures of a harp comb that shows where the notes are in a C and an F diatonic harmonica.

The holes are numbered 1-10, and the position of the hole number indicates the low note in each hole.  The blow notes are shown in the hole chambers toward the front edge of the comb, and the draw notes are shown at the rear of the chambers.  The notes in between the blow and draw notes in the chambers are the normal bent notes available in each hole.  The notes shown outside the chambers are the overbends, consisting of overblows in holes 1-6 and overdraws in holes 7-10.  Note that overbends are available in all holes, but only those that add unique notes have been shown.

The discontinuous line of hole numbers is shown to emphasize the point that the note relationships invert at hole 7.  That is, on holes 1-6 the blow notes are lower than the draw notes–but on holes 7-10 the draw notes are lower than the blow notes.

C Diatonic Note Layout

Most players who advance beyond the beginner level play in 2nd position 80%-95% of the time. (Playing in 2nd position means the tonic note is the 2 draw, which is a 5th higher than the key of the harmonica.) So, to think in the generic key of C when playing in 2nd position, you use the key of F harmonica.  Here is the note layout of a key of F harmonica.

F Diatonic Note Layout

Another nice thing to see explicitly, instead of digging it out of other
charts, is how to play the same note at different places on the harp. The
range of a 10 hole diatonic is 3 octaves, so I’ve divided the table into
Low, Mid, and Hi to correspond to these octaves.

 

C Harp Note Location	F Harp Note Location
Note Low Med Hi C 1> 4> 7>/10> Db 1′ 4′ 7#/10# D 1 4 8 Eb 1># 4># 8>’ E 2> 5> 8> F 2″ 5 9 F# 2′ 5># 9>’ G 2|3> 6> 9> Ab 3″‘ 6′ 9# A 3″ 6 10 Bb 3′ 6># 10>” B 3 7 10>’	Note Low Med Hi F 1> 4> 7>/10> F# 1′ 4′ 7#/10# G 1 4 8 Ab 1># 4># 8>’ A 2> 5> 8> Bb 2″ 5 9 B 2′ 5># 9>’ C 2|3> 6> 9> Db 3″‘ 6′ 9# D 3″ 6 10 Eb 3′ 6># 10>” E 3 7 10>’

These next tables show the holes, blow and draw, and the a*sociated
notes on C and F harps.

 

C Harp Notes by Hole	F Harp Notes by Hole
Hole Blow Note Draw Note 1 C D 2 E G 3 G B 4 C D 5 E F 6 G A 7 C B 8 E D 9 G F 10 C A	Hole Blow Note Draw Note 1 F G 2 A C 3 C E 4 F G 5 A Bb 6 C D 7 F E 8 A G 9 C Bb 10 F D

The embouchure (ahm’ ba sure) is the method of applying the lips and tongue to the mouthpiece of a wind instrument, like the harmonica! If you are just learning to play I recommend you start with the Lip Block.

1) Lip Block – A variant of the pucker (see below), it’s also called lipping. Tilt the harp up at the back about 30 to 45 degrees, and open your mouth pretty wide, enough to cover about 3 holes, with your upper lip about 1/2 to 2/3 of the way over the top cover.  Let the harp nestle into your lower lip. What happens is that quite naturally, without really trying and without forcing it, the lower lip blocks the 2 side holes and lets the center hole sound cleanly. The open mouth position helps improve your resonance, which in turn helps in getting bends correctly, and improves your overall tone. The harp needs to be well in your mouth… Don’t be shy! You can’t just peck it with puckered lips and make it work right.  You should be relaxed, without tightening your lips or pinching in your cheeks.

2) Pucker – The lips are pursed and pushed out, and the harp is positioned deep back into the mouth (but not are far back as for tongue blocking or U-blocking. See below).  The air stream is “directed through the pucker to one hole”.  (Note: This is as described in many beginning harp books, ala John Gindick’s.  In my opinion, the pucker does not direct the air stream through the hole so much as the deep position of the harp in the mouth brings the lips into contact with the side holes not to be played.)

Note: I believe that for experienced players the pucker and lip block evolve so as to become nearly indistinguishable.  In my opinion, it is easier to reach this “pucker/block” embouchure starting with the lip block than with the “pucker” mental image.

3) Tongue Block – The mouth is opened to cover 3 or more holes, and the tongue blocks the holes that are not intended to sound.  The tongue block pretty much must be used for octave and split interval play . Tongue blocking also facilitates various harp playing techniques and effects, such as “slaps” and “flutters”.  The tongue normally blocks the holes on the left and leaves a single note on the right unblocked to sound, but the tongue can also block holes on the right leaving a single note on the left to play.  It’s best to learn to block and play on both sides to facilitate quick jumps and easy access to holes on both ends of the harp.

4) U-block – A variant of the Tongue Block where the tongue is (normally) rolled into a “U” shape, though the tightness of the curve varies a lot from player to player. The tip of the tongue is placed just beneath the hole to be played or even down onto the lower cover. The mouth is open to cover about 3 holes, and the tongue curves up, or is pushed up to block the left and right holes.

All bends and overblows/draws are available using any of these embouchures.  There is no clear evidence of which I am aware that any embouchure allows faster or cleaner play than any other.  The consensus best approach is to learn them all and use the ones you like.

Note: The tongue block is the only embouchure that offers split intervals and certain “slap” effects.  (U-block techniques easily extend to become essentially tongue block techniques for blocking multiple holes.)  In my opinion, for most people if only one embouchure were to be used, the tongue block would offer the most versatility.  However, as mentioned above, there is no need to stick to only one embouchure, and it’s best to learn as many as possible.

Also note: It is possible to “pucker/block” out of either corner of the mouth, and it is possible to lip block on either side of a single hole to be played.  These modifications to the “standard” embouchures can add speed and accuracy since less harp/head movement is required to jump to a non-contiguous note. For the pucker/block, the harp is “twisted” from side to side to bring either corner of the mouth into play.  For the tongue block, the tongue is moved left or right to cover/expose the proper notes.  For U-blocking, the tongue can be moved from side to side to select individual notes with little or no movement of the harp relative to the mouth.

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.

The reeds vibrate, but interestingly it is not the reed vibration that causes the harmonica sound.  You can verify this for yourself by removing the covers and plucking a reed.  It makes a tiny ping sound, nothing like what you hear when you play the harmonica. The sound of the harmonica is created by the action of the reed vibrating through its slot and chopping the air stream.  This is similar to the way a siren works.  There is very little clearance between the edges of the reeds and the sides of the slots in the reed plates, so when the reed is actually within the slot during its vibrations the air stream is essentially shut off.  When the reed emerges from its slot on either side of the reed plate the area through which the air stream can pass opens up, so the air stream starts up again.  It is this vibration of the air stream that makes the harmonica sound.  The reeds are not like guitar strings, which vibrate to make the sound which is amplified by the acoustics of the guitar body.  They are just springs that cause vibrations in the air stream.

The tiny harmonica does not have any resonant body like a guitar or violin, or a sound board like a piano.  Nothing in the harp appreciably amplifies its sound or resonates.  The resonance comes from the player, which is largely why the harmonica is such a personal instrument.  Many people will tell you that the material out of which the body of the harmonica is made determines how it will sound.  While there may be very small differences in tone due to materials, any such difference is essentially negligible to all but the most advanced players.

The top picture above shows the harmonica parts in their proper orientation.  Notice how from this angle you can only see the slots in the reed plates on the other side of the plate from where the reeds are attached.  Both plates have their reeds facing down.  You can see that when the harp is a*sembled, the upper reeds are inside the comb and the lower reeds are outside the comb.

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.

During normal draw or blow bends, both the draw reed and the blow reed can participate in making the note.  As you start with a draw note and bend it down to its limit, initially the draw reed makes the note as above, then both reeds vibrate through their slots to make the note, and finally, at the deepest part of the bend, only the blow reed is making the note.  You can verify this by removing the covers and using your fingers to stop the vibration of the upper and lower reeds at various times during a bend.  The reverse happens during blow bends: the blow reed starts, both reeds participate, and finally only the draw reed makes the sound.

The range of bending available for a pair of reeds is determined by the pitches of the natural notes of the reeds (i.e. the unbent notes).  The pitch can be bend down from the high note to just lower than 1 semitone (one half step, e.g. B to C) above the low note.

The opposing reed, i.e. the blow reed during a draw bend, starts by moving away from its slot.  This deflection adds energy to the spring that is the reed.  When resonance factors are just right the opposing reed can gain enough energy that when it springs back it goes all the way through its slot.  The action of the reeds where they first move away from their slots is traditionally called an opening note.  The physics of exactly how all this interplay between the reeds, air stream, and slots works is largely unexplored, unintuitive, and not well understood.

The point to understand is that during a normal bend, one reed is operating in a closing note fashion while the opposing reed is operating in an opening note fashion.  The closing reed’s pitch gets lower while the opening reed’s pitch gets higher than their corresponding natural notes.

During overbends, i.e. overblows and overdraws, the resonances and air flow characteristics are such that the closing reeds don’t participate in making the sound, and only the opening note is played.  (It is possible to play in such a way that the closing and opening reeds both play and produce different pitches.  This is usually caused by poor overblow technique, but can be used to achieve two-note double stops that can’t be achieved any other way.)  The action of stopping the closing reed from sounding is often called choking the reed, which forces the closing reed into its slot with very little energy so that it neither crosses its slot nor has enough energy to spring all the way back to its normal position. With the slot blocked the air stream cannot flow that way, and with the little energy in the spring the reed remains in position to block the slot, so the closing reed vibration never takes place.  Overbends are opening notes, so their pitch is higher than the natural note of the reed–just the opposite of normal bends.

How does the harmonica work?  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. 

Tone is a frequent topic among harp players, but it is not a simple concept that is well defined.  Tone is the Holy Grail of harmonica.  It is related to the musical timbre of the instrument, but most often encompasses other playing elements as well.

Tone is about 
Notes 
That sound: good. 
Notes 
That sound: Clean and full and Big and fat and 
Round and warm and Sweet and clear.  or 
Notes that sound: 
Bitter and shrill or Light and airy or Bright and piercing or 
Powerful and edgy… 
Notes: 
That aren’t weak and wimpy or tentative, but that 
Speak out and Sing, 
Confidently, with 
Your voice. 
Or softly whisper 
Your secrets. 
Notes: 
That rip through you and 
Grab your insides and 
Tear the emotions out of you. 
That’s good tone.

Tone production relates to the whole of playing a note: how it is attacked, how it is sustained, what (loudness variation) dynamics are applied, how it ends: abruptly or smoothly or tailing off, and what effects are used on it when, such as vibratos and/or tremolos, or slurs or other combinations with other notes.  A player with good tone uses many different techniques, timbres, effects, and varieties of note shaping to produce his/her notes.  Notes shouldn’t just happen.  Notes should be willfully created.  All of them.

Phrasing relates to how notes are played in succession, whether smoothly with legato or abruptly with degrees of pizzicato or staccato, how dynamics and musical space are used to frame notes and passages and set them apart from other phrases in the music.  In grammar, a phrase is a related set of words formed to express an idea.  In music, a phrase is a related set of notes used to express a musical idea.  Phrasing, while distinct from tone, is not unrelated to it.  In much improvised play, it is the musical idea that is maintained from instance to instance of a song, not the precise notes and timing.  Just like when you have an opinion or idea to express in words, you don’t always say it the same way, using the same words in the same order with the same emphasis–so it goes with musical ideas too.  Musical ideas can be replicated in phrases using different notes and timings, so long as the feel remains consistent.  What has this got to do with tone?  Well, if you take away specific note sequences and timings for the basis of a musical idea, you have reduced the number of musical elements left to worry about.  Tone (strictly timbre) is one of those remaining musical elements.  Rhythm is another that is partially left.. the groove–the underlying beat pattern and beat emphasis is normally kept consistent to maintain the feel of a phrase, even if the rhythmic patterns of the note durations is not kept the same.  The vibrato element of tone is one element that can be used in setting the feel to a phrase.  The tone of the notes should be appropriate for the phrase being played–the tone should augment the musical expression.  The tone can work together with the other phrasing elements–including dynamics, note durations, and rests–to enhance the musical statement that is a phrase.

Tone comes from the entire musical system that produces the note, from the instrument to the player to the setting to the amplification.  Of this sound production system, the player is by far the largest most dominant factor when it comes to tone.  Through out these pages I talk about techniques that enhance your ability to make different sounds with the harp, and provide a basis for overall good tone.  Here are some elements to pay particular attention to, to pick up on when you see them a*sociated with other topics and techniques:

Common Elements of Good Tone

• Good harmonica tone sounds good with the rest of the music, and changes according to the demands of the musical expression.
• Clean single notes.  Sloppy play is an enemy of good tone.
• Playing in tune.  This includes draw bends, blow bends, intermediate bends, and overbends–all the note types.
  • Also, the tuning system used, such as equal temperament or just intonation or some compromise between the two, affects the tonal characteristics of passages and chords.
• Breathing from the diaphragm helps produce a big fat full tone.
• Resonance works with breathing to produce a loud or complex full bodied tone.
• Effective use of vibrato works with the rhythm of the music to add variety and life to the sound of a note.  Consistency of vibrato through the different note types can be a key to maintaining a cohesive tone through a passage, and mask the playing techniques used to create the note.
• Consistency among note types in a passage contributes to the sense of a controlled and motivated tone.
• Draws
• Blows
• Draw Bends
• Blow Bends
• Full bends
• Intermediate bends
• Overblows
• Overdraws
• Single-reed “valve” style closing reed bends.
• Open airways, including the mouth and throat help get the thick round tone.  Pinching of the air stream makes a note weaker and thinner and less confident.
• Effective hand cupping techniques add resonance and variety and shape to the note.  For amplified play, a tight hand cup fattens up the sound, makes the note louder, adds compression, and contributes to a powerful, edgy distortion.  A leaky seal makes the note thinner, softer, more shrill, less biting.  A poor cup around the harp and mic can be like playing an electric guitar with the amp turned off.  A good tight cup is like turning the amp on.
• Proper equipment for amplification enhances the sound production system–but the player is still the key.  If you have poor acoustic tone, expect to have poor amplified tone as well.  If you have good acoustic tone you have a chance to get good amplified tone, but you have to master those additional amplified tonal elements as well.
• Proper amplification and electronic effects to work with the player’s tone to enhance the intended feel of the music.  For example, if you’re going for a big fat full tone, don’t use amplification that emphasizes high notes and brittle or piercing sound.  If you want to sound like a distorted electric guitar, don’t play through a clean rig like an SM57 through the PA.  If you want a clean acoustic sound, don’t hold a bullet mic cupped tight and play through an overdriven guitar amp using effects pedals.
• Even, consistent, and controlled volume (loudness) for all note types, blown, drawn, bent, or overbent.  If your notes are not consistent or controlled as to how loud they are relative to each other, the result will sound chunky, choppy, and strained, and the sense of good tone will be greatly diminished.
• Good use of dynamics consistently for all note types contributes to an overall sense of good tone.  Dynamics is about controlling loudness, softness, and pulsing of volume, and about changes to the loudness–gradually, or suddenly, playing louder or softer, while keeping any pulsing heartbeat intact.
• Good phrase-related tone adds a sense of cohesiveness and consistency to each phrase and to the music as a whole.
• Effective use of variety, especially among musical phrases, to add interest, add spice, add color, and convey different feelings works together with the effective use of consistencywithin musical passages to become the work of musical art painted by the tonal palette and different tonal colors.  If you can’t maintain tonal consistency within a passage, you cannot paint a smooth red stroke; if you can’t add variety to your tone, you can only paint in blue.
• Effective use of the strengths of the differences among the note types–their individual voices and character adds variety and provides expressive capabilities.  Elements you may wish to downplay for the sake of consistency sometimes, you may want to emphasize for the sake of expression or variety at other times.
• Attention to the details of note attack, formation, sustain, and shaping is the key to controlling your tone.
• Tongue slaps for note articulation can help thicken up the sound with brief chords and add punch to the rhythmic heartbeat of the music.
• Controlled use of slurs to let in small amounts of air and sound from adjacent holes can thicken up the sound and add tension.
• Effective use and control of difference tones generated with double-stops (2 notes at a time) can add to the overall sense of musical harmony or dissonance, and thicken up the sound with these created, extra notes.  This is an advanced technique that requires very precise control over the bends of both notes when two notes are played at once to “tune” a third note that is automatically generated as a function of the frequencies of the notes being played.  Control over difference tones is especially important for amplified play, where the created difference tones are much louder than during acoustic play.
• Good musicianship in general contributes to the overall sense of good tone.

Effect Combinations

Though the elements of tone are described individually, they are often used in combination to produce the final sound.  Just because they are discussed separately doesn’t mean they are used in isolation.  There are lots of examples of effects used in combination.. here are a few:

• Note articulations (including slaps) start a note, but don’t impact the use of dynamics or vibrato.
• Hand “wahs” are often used in conjunction with bends that are released, which emphasizes the “wah” effect.
• Tremolos and vibratos can be merged, or transformed into one another.
• The depth of tremolos and vibratos can be a*sociated with dynamic changes to the loudness of a note.  As a couple of examples, a note could start out soft and straight (no vibrato), increase in volume adding a tremolo wavering of the volume, and end with a loud, pitch-wavering vibrato; or a note could start loud and straight, then fade out with a little vibrato.
• Dynamic pulsing of the volume of vibrato oscillations can work with phrasing, rhythm, timing, the groove, and legato passages to enhance and emphasize them.
• Hand tremolo can be combined with throat vibrato and diaphram tremolo to produce a tone wavering volume wavering pitch wavering note.
• Other examples are left as an exercise for the dedicated student.

Practicing Tone

Practicing tone means practicing all the elements that go into tone production, some of which are mentioned above.  It does not mean playing lots of notes.  It means playing each note for a long time, manipulating it with your mouth and hands and tongue and breath to try to make it sound as good as you can, in as many different ways as you can.  Practicing and playing with good tone is not hurrying to the next note, it is lingering on each note to show the details.

Practicing tone means listening to the sound of each note, and being aware of the details.  The more you know, the more you will notice, the more details you will hear.  You can actually practice tone by learning what different playing techniques sound like, and listening to identify what techniques of note formation and shaping are being used.  The songs Misty and Stormy Sea II are full of examples you can try to identify and analyze to see how the techniques contribute to the tone and the music.  The section on diatonic techniques includes sound samples (in Real Audio format) to help you learn to identify and understand what the player is doing.  Once you can hear and know and think about what can be done, only then can you try to do it.

What the player is doing.  Is doing.  Try to do it.  Doing.  Do.  Something active, not passive.  Good tone is active.  It is willfully produced, it is not something that just happens because of the harp you use or the amplification equipment you play through.  Tone is something the player puts in the note. Something the player does, actively, willfully, by exercising control over him/herself, his breathing, her playing, their music.

But the timbre of different instruments, amps, and mics does vary.  The degree or possibility of certain kinds of tonal manipulations can be different on different equipment and under different conditions.  But remember, good tone is not passive, not just something that happens.  Good tone is control over notes that is done by the player.

Practice playing one note for a long time, listening to its sound, its voice, its nuances.  Change it subtly, change it dramatically, play it soft, play it loud, play it gradually softer and softer, play it gradually louder and louder.  Play it straight, play it with vibrato, change the depth of the vibrato, waver the pitch, oscillate the volume, let it fade out, make it end abruptly.  Hold it for a long time.

I think it is good to practice tone–especially a big fat full round horn-like tone–on lower key (pitch range) harps (say, key of A or lower is better).  The lower notes require a larger resonance chamber, and you have to open up and get big on the inside more for low key harps than on higher key harps (say key of C and higher).  I even suggest working on extended-range low key harps, like a low D or even a “tenor” C like a Hohner 365.  Bends and vibratos on low harps require a tighter grip on the air stream, and larger mouth and muscle movements–and maybe I just like their sound.  Since different key harps have their own character, it is good to practice tone on a full range of keys, including low, medium, and high harps (say, D and higher).  Work on higher key harps requires smaller movements and more subtle control of the muscles.  You can’t really get a big fat horn-like sound out of a high key harp, and it’s harder to get a bright, brittle, piercing, or flute-like sound on a low harp.

Whenever you play, whatever you play, give each note its due.

In order to learn about the harp, you have to know the language–harp specific terms and their meanings.  The following pictures show a disassembled diatonic harmonica with various parts indicated.  The bottom picture shows a reedplate with the reed side up.

Diatonic Harmonica Parts 

The following table presents some basic definitions used when discussing the harmonica and harmonica play.  Many other less basic terms are discussed in the section about diatonic harmonica techniques. 

Term	Meaning
Bend	A lowering of the naturally played pitch of a reed caused by playing techniques.  Draw notes can be bent on holes 1-6 and blow notes can be bent on holes 7-10.
Blow	Notes played by exhaling.  The blow notes are created by the upper reeds (numbers up) where the reeds open inside the harp.
Chamber	The area or cell in the comb into which the reeds vibrate.  The player breathes through the outer holes of the chambers to play the harmonica.  See figure above.
Chromatic	A tuning that uses all 12 notes used in Western music. Chromatic harmonicas have a slide activated by a button that alter the reed that is sounded to enable fully chromatic play. Often refers to the type of harmonica, as opposed to a diatonic harp.
Closing Bend	A pitch lowering bend where the reed initially closes into its slot.
Comb	The body of a harp upon which the reed plates are attached. The comb has the holes or chambers into which you play.  Combs are made of wood, plastic, or metal.  See picture above.
Covers	The outer covers of the harmonica that attach to the comb.
Cup	The seal formed between the hands and the harmonica or mic.
Diatonic	A tuning that uses only the 8 notes from a major or minor scale. This is the tuning for normal 10-hole “short” harmonicas, also called diatonic harps. Often used to refer to the harmonica itself, as opposed to a chromatic harmonica.
Discrete Comb	A diatonic harmonica comb with a separate chamber for each reed.
Draw	Notes played by inhaling.  The draw notes are created by the lower reeds (numbers up) where the reeds open outside the harp.
Gap	The space between a reed and its slot in the reedplate.  See picture above.
Embouchure	The method of applying the lips and tongue to the harmonica.  Often refers to any technique that manipulates the air stream.
Harp	Harmonica.  Seems to originate from the early term “French Harp”.  Also called “Short Harp” and “Mouth Harp”, as well as “Mouth Organ”, “Tin Sandwitch”, and “Mississippi Saxaphone”.
Opening Bend	A pitch raising bend where the reed initially opens away from  its slot.
Overblow	An advanced type of bend that plays the opposite reed in an opening rather than closing fashion.  Overblows raise the pitch of the natural note, whereas normal bends lower the pitch.  Overblows are available on holes 1-6 and overdraws are available on holes 7-10.
Position	Relates to the starting place (e.g. hole number) and manner (e.g. draw or blow) in which the root note of the scale is played.  The natural notes of the harmonica when played in different positions yield characteristic modes.
Reed	A thin rectangular metal strip (normally brass) attached to a mounting plate that is activated by the players breath to spring back and forth through its slot, which chops the airstream and produces the harmonica’s sound.  See picture above.
Reed plate	The mounting plate for the harmonica reeds. Normally brass.  See picture above.
Resonance	An amplification effect due to sound waves echoing and superimposing to reinforce certain audible frequendies.
Slot	A rectangular hole in the reed plate just slightly larger than its reed. The reed vibrates through its slot to produce the harmonica sound.  See picture above.
Tab	Short for tablature.  A shortcut notation that indicates how to play a note on the harmonica.  This is different from standard musical notation, which indicates what note to play including its relative duration.
Tremolo	Pulsations of air pressure that cause a wavering effect to the loudness of the sound.  Often referred to as vibrato, and often mixed with vibrato to produce a note oscillation effect as used by singers.  When both vibrato and tremolo are present, usually the term vibrato is used.
Vibrato	Slight fluctuations of pitch produced by a slight wavering movement of part of the embouchure affecting the air stream.  Sometimes referred to as tremolo, and often used with tremolo to produce a note oscillation effect as used by singers.  When both vibrato and tremolo are present, usually the term vibrato is used.

SpeeD

Speed, in music, means playing fast in a musical context.  Not just playing fast.  Playing in a musical context means staying coherent with the rhythmic, harmonic, and melodic content of the piece.  If you play fast but ignore the musical elements, then you are just playing fast, but not using speed.  Speed implies control.  A child can pick up the harp for the very first time, blow or suck and flail the harmonica in front of his/her lips and play fast.  But this is not musical speed, as you can tell.

Let me divide speed playing into two categories: composed and improvised.  The composed category includes everything where what to be played has been worked out ahead of time.  The improvisedcategory includes everything else, where what is played was not planned ahead of time.

Speed for Composed Play

Composed play is not limited to playing classical harmonica compositions.. it also includes everything from executing riffs and licks that have been learned to playing a song like “Juke” note for note.

To play something that has been already defined–there’s no getting around it, you have to play it that way (or some planned variant of that way).  You have to work with your skill at the elements required for the phrases you are going to play.

Sometimes there will be certain elements: note transitions or jumps or technical difficulties that are particularly difficult to play.  As you practice you will become aware of the places you have the most difficulty.  These are the areas to isolate and work on individually.  Practice those elements enough that you gain control of them.  Practice them enough that instead of dreading them, you look forward to them because you can do them so well.  Practice them enough that other elements of the music become more difficult than these, which were more difficult at first.  Gaining control of these new problem elements will probably be far easier than controlling the initial elements.  Keep playing the initial difficult but now not problematic elements as you practice the new less difficult but more problematic ones.  This should become a process of smoothing and controlling the transitions between the different elements of the phrase(s).

Investigation of the underlying breathing patterns required to play the notes in the phrase can help in determining what you need to do to be able to execute the passage properly.  Memory becomes a dominant factor when playing fast composed passages, because speed means lots of notes and rhythmic patterns, and lots of anything means lots to remember.  Understanding the underlying breathing patterns gives you something besides individual notes to remember and on which to focus, making the memory task easier, as well as enhancing the ability to execute the phrase.

Start Slow

When working on passages that are to be played fast, start out working on them very slowly, paying particular attention to rhythm and tempo and dynamics.  Concentrate on all the subtelties that go into the passages, note transitions, moving to different holes, head, hand, and arm movements.  Exaggerate your movements smoothly while playing slowly–think of a slow ice skating performance, where the arms and hands extend and sweep in time with the music and the skating.

When you eventually move to faster speeds, you cut back on these exaggerated movements which tends to keep the note transition relative-timings fairly consistent.  For example, if you are playing slowly and still require some extremely fast compact movement to play some sequence of notes, there’s no room there to speed up that part later.  You need to put some exaggerated smooth and appropriate motions in your play so you know you are practicing at a speed that you will be able to improve upon later.  Some parts may require more exaggerated movements than others to keep the tempo and rhythm correct.  Where you are least able to exaggerate the slowness is where you will be limited on how fast you can play the passage.

Practice playing very smoothly at very slow speeds initially.  Only after you get comfortable and competent playing at slow speeds should you move to faster speeds.  As you start to speed things up, intermix the faster passage with the slower one in a controlled way, as a whole–don’t play a little fast and a little slow during the passage.  Keep the passage smooth and in rhythm in its entirety, but play the different speed passages back to back.  For example, play the passage at the speed you are comfortable with, then push yourself a little faster for the whole passage and don’t worry about missing notes.  Keep going and keep the rhythmic integrity intact.  Keep your dynamics and phrasing under control, and if you hit some wrong notes.. so be it, that’s okay.  Then go back and play the passage at the slower speed at which you can hit all the notes comfortably with exaggerated control.  If you find you can’t keep the rhythmic integrity and dynamics in place, you aren’t ready to move to a higher speed.  Concentrate on those musical elements at the slower speed and get them ingrained in your aural image of the passage.

Think about relaxing, and minimizing the muscles involved in playing the passage (though the ones in action may be making extended movements).  As you play slowly, work on optimizing your approach to the passage, playing smoothly and efficiently, but with a degree of motion commensurate with the speed at which you are playing.

Start with only a couple of notes, and gradually add one before or one after the small set you are working on.  Slowly build up the number of notes you are playing and build up the context of the fast passages, the notes leading into the passage, the passage itself, and the notes following the passage.

Improvised Speed

Improvised speed is playing fast in a musical context where the notes you play aren’t worked out ahead of time.

Ornamentation

Ornamentation is the adding of musical ornaments to a note.  A musical ornament is one or more notes leading to or from the primary note.  The “primary” note is the note being ornamented.

For example, you could ornament a long held 3 draw note with a quick shake to the 4 draw and back.  You could ornament a long 4 draw with a succession of 3 draw to 4 draw shakes.  You could ornament the 3 draw of the shake with a 1/2 step bend.  You could ornament back to back 6 draws with an evenly spaced 4-5-4 shake in between.  In other words, the number of possible ornamentations is vast!

Ornamentation is taking advantage of the musical space provided by held notes and rests in the musical phrase to add notes in the rhythmic context of the underlying music.

Ornamentation should work with the flow of the music and the flow into, during, and out of a phrase.

The above principles make it clear that ornamentation is more concerned with rhythm and feel than with the exact notes to be played.  These notes are short, being played quickly, and lose some of their musical significance  They are ornaments, not the tree or its branches.  Instead of thinking notes, ornamentation is more concerned with direction–where direction means moving toward a note, staying on the note, or moving away from a note.  Or some combination of those motions.  You can start with your primary note and stay there; or play notes that move ever farther away from it; or first move away from it, then back to it; or jump away from it and move steadily back to it.  Or even combinations of those, changing directions more than once before returning to the primary note.

Where do you get the primary note?  You either have it already because you’re ornamenting a preset phrase, lick or riff, or you pick it.

Picking Improvised Primary Notes

Primary notes should first be picked to follow or enhance the musical groove.. the overall rhythmic feel, the flow of the music.  In other words, they should first be picked as to when they are played, rather than which note is played.

Primary notes are most often picked from the scale and mode of the music, e.g. C major or D minor or E blues.  The Layout Generator can show you the notes in the scale and mode of the music for different  positions.

Primary notes are most (or very) often picked from the notes in the current chordal harmony, even if that harmony contains notes not part of the basic scale.

Improvisation about a melody often will involving picking primary notes from that melody at the time the melody note would or does occur.  Improvisation about a melody will often use rhythmic patternsfrom that melody with different notes, and improvisation of primary notes will often be driven by the underlying rhythmic pattern, whether it comes from a fore-known phrase or not.

Breathing Patterns

Improvised notes can also be picked by using underlying breathing patterns as the basis for note selection.  During fast play, the rhythmic integrity is far more important than the particular note chosen, especially if the notes are at least in the key of the music, which is often the case for most notes on the diatonic harp we choose to play for a particular piece of music.  Breathing patterns can establish a rhythmic pattern and basis for which the exact notes are less significant than the consistent rhythmic pattern.  These breathing patterns and rhythms will generate notes automatically.  Consider the perididdle: blow draw blow blow, draw blow draw draw.  When you move to a hole while playing with that breathing pattern, you get what note is there.  If you don’t move to a new hole, you still get what note is there.

One benefit to the use of breathing patterns is realized by selecting rhythmic patterns with breathe-in-breathe-out symmetry so that long lines can be played without running out of breath, in either direction.

Primary Note Phrases

Primary note phrases can be preset or composed phrases, licks and riffs, or improvised phrases that take the place of predefined ones.  These phrases can be placed within the context of fast play, the fast play using ornamentation,  breathing patterns, or other note selection techniques to augment the notes in the primary phrase.

In other words, a certain number of beats or bars can be allocated for speed work.  Many different notes and different rhythmic patterns are used during the fast play.  As part of those notes and rhythms, a higher level phrase can be superimposed to emphasize the overall musical rhythm and provide a motivated musical flow through the many short notes.

In still other words, there will be a few important musically motivated notes, and a lot of relatively unimportant notes, which are musically okay as long as they are played at the right time.

These motivated note phrases generate their own breathing patterns.  Ornamentation or other quick notes can be chosen that fit with these motivated breathing patterns.  This leads to fast lines that fit well with the music, the motivated phrase leading the ear through the flurry of short notes, and are relatively easy to execute since they fall naturally within the breathing patterns generated by the motivated primary note phrases.

These motivated note phrases can be treated as composed, with the fast notes added in an improvised fashion each time.  This allows an improvised section of music to be played with consistent feel, if not consistent notes, and is much easier to remember than long lines of short notes played in a particular way.  This can lead to music that contains elements of a composed improvisation.

General Speed Tips

Breathing

Fast passages can require rapid changes from inhaling to exhaling, and vice versa.  These rapid changes are accomplished by quick movements of the diaphragm.  Practice panting, like a dog pants, to help strengthen the diaphram muscle and train it to respond quickly to changing breath direction.

While you’re practicing panting, you might as well be playing chords too.  Put a low key harp in your mouth and cover a chord and practice your panting so that you get the deepest, biggest, fullest chord you can.  Open up your mouth and throat and hide your tongue down at the bottom of your mouth, a soldier hiding from enemy fire.  Visualize an egg in there, a large egg pushing the insides of your mouth outward and your tongue down.  Pant through the harp, but listen to your chords.  Make them sound good.  Slow down a little if you have to.  Make sure all the notes sound, each one, and try to get them all sounding even.  Shift to a double stroke roll–two pulses out and two pulses in.  Control the pulses with your diaphragm.  Slow down if you have to. Keep it going.  Turn it into a train if you want.  Say “hooka” when you breathe out and “tooka” when you breathe in.  Say “Tah hooka tooka hooka”, with “hooka” said while breathing out, and “ta” and “tooka” said breathing in.  Move the “Tah” around.  Then stop articulating with your tongue–stop saying tah hooka tooka.  Open your mouth back up, drop your tongue back down and just play a double stroke roll with big full chords.  Keep it under control.

Don’t pant for too long or you might get dizzy.

Speed Dynamics

Use varying dynamics to emphasize the underlying groove and primary note phrases.  Pulse the music so that it has a heartbeat.  Remember your panting practice?  Use your diaphram, that’s what you’ve been working on it for.  Hit the note(s) on the beat a little harder than the rest.  Hit beats 2 and 4 even harder to swing the rhythm.  Emphasize notes in the primary phrase over ornamented notes or notes that come from breathing patterns.  Pulse the breathing pattern rhythmically to emphasize a part of the pattern.

Playing Pressure

Control over your playing pressure is a foundational element of playing fast smoothly with good tone, whether you’re playing preset passages or improvising.  Even reed response up and down the harp greatly helps playing fast passages smoothly and cleanly with consistent tone.  The two most important factors in even playing response of the reeds are good compression (i.e. a good air tight harp) and correct gap height of the reed above its slot in the reedplate.  Of these, the most important and most easy to address is the reed gapping.  If you play commercial harps (not custom ones like those from Joe Filisko or Richard Sleigh, etc.) you should be setting your reed gaps according to your playing style.  If you choose not to do so you will be at the whim of chance, and many harps will not respond the way you like.

Speed Is It’s Own Articulation.  Fleeting notes don’t require the same degree of control over attack, shaping, and vibrato as slower ones.  When you practice by playing fast passages slowly, take care to play with the same playing pressure, legato, staccato or other effects as you will when you finally play them fast.  Don’t try to enunciate each note in a very fast passage with articulations like Ta, Ha, Da, Ka, etc.  Unless you’re very practiced with triple-tonguing techniques and synchronizing your tongue with rapid-fire notes, you’re probably better off getting your tongue out of the way.  Establish a playing pressure, and be able to achieve that pressure for rapid changes in breath direction.. in other words, make sure your pressure is consistent enough that you achieve the same volume inhaling and exhaling–or whatever volume is needed at the time to express the musical dynamics.

High Notes

Much if not most speed work is done on the high end of the harp.  The reeds are shorter and respond faster at the high end than on the low end.  Also, musically, the high notes have more energy and cut through the overall sound better than low notes.  Often higher key harps are chosen for very fast work because the high notes on them can respond faster than the high notes on lower key harps.  Much fast work is done on a normal (high) F harp, or even a high G because you can really fly, and the notes really cut through.

Parting Thoughts

If you’re good enough on the harp to be ready to incorporate musical speed, you are definitely ready to make the small effort required to set up your harp, and most of that is in setting the reed gaps, which is easy and not very risky to the harp.  (As with anything, practice the first few times on harps that are not your favorite..)

Speed can be over used.  The harp is best at shaping notes, that is its strength.  Speed can add spice to the musical mix, but like cooking with spice, enough is good and too much is worse than none.

To figure out the chords, you first have to know the “interval relationships” of the notes.  Lets look at the notes again.

Holes:      1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 
Blow notes: C E G C E G C E G C 
Draw notes: D G B D F A B D F A

So, for blow holes 1, 2, and 3 you have C, E, and G, which is a C Major chord (major 3rd interval on “bottom”, i.e. C & E, and minor 3rd interval on “top”, i.e. E & G).  Notice that holes 4, 5, and 6 are also C, E, G, which is another C Major chord, as are holes 7, 8, and 9.  In 1st position the C Major chord is the tonic or root or I chord of the C scale.  In 2nd position the C Major chord is the sub-dominant or IV chord of the G scale, which is part of the I, IV, V blues progression.

For draw holes 1, 2, and 3 you get D, G, and B. This is a G Major chord, 2nd inversion (which just means the root note is in the middle–that is, a G Major chord is G, B, D, but if you play the D as the lowest note you get D, G, B–but it is still a G Major chord).  Notice that  the 4 draw is the same as the 1 draw, a D note.  Doubling a note does not change the chord, so drawing holes 1-4 also produces a G Major chord.  For 1st position the G Major chord is the dominant or V chord of the C scale.  For 2nd position the G Major chord is the root or I chord.

Drawing on holes 2, 3, 4, and 5 have notes G, B, D, F, which is a G7 chord.  The dominant 7th note adds color to the major chord and is used very often in blues, rock, and country music.  Once again you can double the D by adding the 1 draw and you still have the G7 chord.

Drawing on holes 4, 5, and 6, or 8, 9, and 10 produces the notes D, F, A, which is a D minor chord (notationally Dm).

The four note chords in draw 3-6 and 7-10 are B, D, F, A, which is a Bm7b5 chord.  Note that this chord is the same as the D minor chord with the 6th added (called Dm6), but in a different inversion–that is, instead of the 6th note (the B) being the high note in the chord it is the low note.

The diatonic harp can play only those relatively few chords.  Many times, players will play “partial chords” or double stops consisting of only 2 notes, since the full chord is not available.

For example, the Em chord, notes E G B, is not on a C harp.  But, looking at the figure above you can see that blow holes 2&3, 5&6, and 8&9 have the notes E&G, the first two notes of the Em chord.  Similarly, the F chord is F A C, and doesn’t fall on the harp–but the F&A notes are there as draw notes in holes 5&6 and 9&10.

Here’s an important point to remember.  The 3rd scale degree (the middle note in root position triads) controls whether the chord sounds Major or Minor, and sets the tonal color.  Sometimes the 3rd is left out, which results in a sort of haunting or eerie effect, since the listener does not hear the major or minor sound.  However, often times there are other instruments playing, like a guitar, bass, or keyboard, and those instruments set the overall feel of the music, so the harp can get away with not playing all the notes in a chord.

Another technique that can be used to simulate chords that aren’t on the harp is to play them broken apart.  Using the above example for Em, the player could play 5 blow & 6 blow to get the E&G, then follow that with the 7 draw to get the B note.  Many such combinations are possible.

Finally, broken chords can be played one note at a time, which are called arpeggios.

Arpeggios

An arpeggio is the notes in a chord played one at a time in sequence, instead of all together at once.  There are a very limited number of chords available on any one diatonic harmonica, but with the use of bends and overbends (or valves) any arpeggio can be played.  Knowledge of the arpeggios is very useful for improvising and keeping the improvisation consistent with the underlying chords.  More than just being able to play the chords broken into single notes, knowing where the notes in a chord are helps you understand which notes to emphasize relative to the rhythm of the music.

Here are the arpeggios for the basic I, IV, V chords in 2nd position (notes for the key of C). 
 

Chord	Notes	Octave	Tab	Octave	Tab	Octave	Tab
I	C E G	Low	2 3 4	Middle	6> 7 8	High	9> 10>’ n/a
IV	F A C	Low	1> 2> 3>	Middle	4> 5> 6>	High	7> 8> 9>
V	G B D	Low	1 2′ 3″	Middle	4 5# 6	High	8 9>’ 10

Here are the arpeggios for the dominant I, IV, V chords in 2nd position (notes for the key of C). 
 

Chord	Notes	Octave	Tab	Octave	Tab	Octave	Tab
I7	C E G Bb	Low	2 3 4 5	Middle	6> 7 8 9	High	9> 10>’ n/a n/a
IV7	F A C Eb	Low	1> 2> 3> 3′	Middle	4> 5> 6> 6>#	High	7> 8> 9> 10>”
V7	G B D F	Low	1 2′ 3″ 4>	Middle	4 5># 6 7>	High	8 9>’ 10 10>

Here is a diagram showing where the arpeggios lie in your harp.  Start at a filled circle and follow the arrows. By the way, you can practice these arpeggios on any key harp–you don’t have to use an F harp–it’s just easier to think in the key of C.

One of the interesting things about these diagrams is that you can easily see how the arpeggios relate to each other and connect.  Seeing and visualizing these relationships is very important for improvising and knowing how to jam over chords.

Here are the arpeggios for the minor ii, iii, and vi chords in 2nd position (notes for the key of C). 
 

Chord	Notes	Octave	Tab	Octave	Tab	Octave	Tab
ii	D F A	Low	3″ 4> 5>	Middle	6 7> 8>	High	10 10> n/a
iii	E G B	Low	n/a 1 2′	Middle	3 4 5>#	High	7 8 9>’
vi	A C E	Low	2> 2 3	Middle	5> 6> 7	High	8> 9> 10>’

Here are the arpeggios for the dominant minor ii, iii, and vi chords in 2nd position (notes for the key of C). 
 

Chord	Notes	Octave	Tab	Octave	Tab	Octave	Tab
ii7	D F A C	Low	3″ 4> 5> 6>	Middle	6 7> 8> 9>	High	10 10> n/a n/a
iii7	E G B D	Low	n/a 1 2′ 3″	Middle	3 4 5># 6	High	7 8 9>’ 10
vi7	A C E G	Low	2> 2 3 4	Middle	5> 6> 7 8	High	8> 9> 10>’ n/a

The major scale arpeggios can be played in 3rd position with the use of the hole 5 overblow to get the major 3rd instead of the naturally occurring minor 3rd.  It is this natural minor 3rd in hole 5 that makes 3rd position a natural choice for playing with minor chords and minor scales. 

The following diagram shows the arpeggios for the minor i, iv, v chords in 3rd position.  Here, the iv chord minor 3rd requires the hole 6 overblow. 

Improvising Over Chords

Improvising Over Chords

I think of the notes of resolution, and emphasis, and relationships changing with the chord progression.  What I mean is, when soloing during a I chord, I’ll emphasize notes that are in the (e.g. blues) scale of the I chord–and more than that, I’ll lean a bit harder on the notes that are actually in the I7 chord.

When the IV chord comes around, I’ll switch and emphasize notes in the (e.g. blues) scale of the IV chord with further emphasis on the IV7 chord notes. Same for the V chord. So, to me, one of the first “theory” things to learn (or learn to hear) is the notes in the I, IV, and V chords–then adding the rest of the notes in the (e.g. blues) scales for those chords.

By way of example, consider the key of C. The I, IV, and V chords are C, F, and G–with the 7th we’re talking C7, F7, and G7, which have these notes:C7: C E G Bb
F7: F A C Eb
G7: G B D FThe chords don’t change just because you play the notes in a different order (though they are sometimes called “inversions” of the root chord). So, let me line up these chords in pairs, to show where notes overlap:(I)  C7: C E  G Bb
(IV) F7: C Eb F ASo you see a couple of things.

• The root note, C, of the I chord, C7, is the same as the 5 (dominant) of the IV chord, F7.
• The 7 note of the IV chord, Eb, is the same as the all-important-in-blues flat 3rd of the I chord (3rd is E, so flat 3rd is Eb).

From listening, we know that the 7 note and the flat 3rd are “notes of tension”–we want to hear them resolve. So, depending on where you are in the chord progression you resolve differently from the same note (Eb, or the 2nd position 3′ [3 draw bend])–either to IV (F7) chord (or scale) notes, or I (C7) chord (or scale) notes.  But, look here: the C note is shared between these two chords. So you can resolve Eb to C over either the I=C7 chord or the IV=F7 chord.  For 2nd position, that’s 3′ to 2 (3 draw bend to 2 draw).  Ever use that?!  Of course! It fits in so many places. This is why!  In blues, we’re mostly on the I and IV chords, with occasional ventures into the V.(I) C7: C E G Bb
(V) G7: D F G BThe I and V chords share the 5 note of the I chord (the G of the C7 chord) and the root note of the V chord (the G of the G chord). And, the flat 3rd–here the Bb–of the V chord (the G7) is the same as the 7 note of the I chord. Okay, we’ve seen this before. The flat 3rd and the 7th are both notes of tension that want to resolve, either up from the 7 to the 1 (Bb to C) or from the flat 3rd to the 3rd as a transition, or to the root of the 5–so Bb to B, or Bb to G. In second position, that’s 2” 2 (2 draw double bend to 2 draw) as 7th to root of the 1 chord, or 2” 1 (2 draw full bend to 1 draw) for flat 3rd to tonic of the V chord.(IV) F7: F A C Eb
 (V) G7: F G B DThe F7 and G7–IV and V chord–share the F note, the root of the IV and the 7 of the V.  The 7 is a note of tension, the root, a note of resolution.  This going from tension to resolution is the heart of blues.  But here, you don’t have to change notes! You can play the same note, and the chord progression will go from IV–V, resolved to tense, or from V–IV, tense to resolved. We’re talking about the 4> (four blow) here for 2nd position.(IV) F7: F A  C Eb
 (I) C7: G Bb C E
 (V) G7: G B  D FSo the C7 chord sits nicely between the F7 and G7, sharing the C note with the F7, and the Eb as the “blue note” flat 3rd; and the G note with the G7 chord, with the Bb as the G7 chord’s “blue note” flat 3rd.

Learning other chords, including bigger 4 and 5 note chords, can show you what notes can be used to transition smoothly from one chord to another, and provides many ideas for improvisation.

Root Notes Are Anchors

The root note of a chord is the key note, and it anchors any improvisation over that chord.  Musical lines either start on the root note or head to a root note, either of the current chord or the next chord in the chord progression.  Arpeggios begin on the root note, scales go from root (tonic) to root, and interval relationships are revealed based on the root note.  For example, the flat third blue note is a minor third from the root note, e.g. Eb in a C chord.

Since the I, IV, and V chords are the most often used chords in blues, and most music, it is important to be thoroughly familiar with where the root notes are for these chords.  Since 2nd position cross harp is the most used playing position, it is very important to know where all the root notes are on the harp for all these three chords in 2nd position.

The root notes for the I chord in 2nd position are: 
2, 6>, 9> (and 3>)

The root notes for the IV chord in 2nd position are: 
1>, 4>, 7>, 10>

The root notes for the V chord in 2nd position are: 
1, 4, 8

Practice playing these root notes by themselves.  First work on the root notes for the I chord.  Play 2, 6>, and 9> over and over until you can hit them cleanly every time without looking.  Pick up a harp and close your eyes.  Can you play the 2 draw, 6 blow, and 9 blow without looking or playing any other notes?  Keep working on it until you can.  Do the same for the IV and the V chord.

Having a firm grasp of these chordal root notes will help anchor your internalized image of the harp, as well as anchoring your improvisations to the underlying chords.  You will be able to know exactly where the octaves span on your harp, and where to play to stay in a certain octave or pitch range.  You will be better able to feel how to move phrases around on the harp, from low to middle to high, and in general it will help you know your way around the harp better.  On other instruments you can often see where you are.. see where the octaves are, but not so on the harp.  It has to be internalized–all our vision is inner.  Practice these root notes to help provide anchor points for your inner vision.

Play through the “Root Note Blues” tabbed out here.  Remember, the dots (.) are there to remind you hold that note a bit to swing the beat.  No, it’s not the most interesting blues you’ve ever heard–but it is clearly recognized as a standard blues because the chords are suggested by their root notes. 
 

Root Note Blues

I

Bar 1

Bar 2

Bar 3

Bar 4

1 &

2 &

3 &

4 &

1 &

2 &

3 &

4 &

1 &

2 &

3 &

4 &

1 &

2 &

3 &

4 &

2.2

6>.6>

9>.9>

6>.6>

2.2

6>.6>

2.2

6>.6>

2.2

6>.6>

9>.9>

6>.6>

2.2

9>.9>

6>.6>

2.2

IV

I

Bar 5

Bar 6

Bar 7

Bar 8

1 &

2 &

3 &

4 &

1 &

2 &

3 &

4 &

1 &

2 &

3 &

4 &

1 &

2 &

3 &

4 &

1>.1>

4>.4>

7>.7>

10>.10>

1>.1>

4.>4>

7>.7>

4>.4>

2.2

6>.6>

9>.9>

6>.6>

2.2

6>.6>

2.2

6>.6>

V

IV

I

V

Bar 9

Bar 10

Bar 11

Bar 12

1 &

2 &

3 &

4 &

1 &

2 &

3 &

4 &

1 &

2 &

3 &

4 &

1 &

2 &

3 &

4 &

1.1

4.4

8.8

4.4

1>.1>

4>.4>

7>.7>

4>.4>

2.2

6>.6>

2.2

9>.9>

8.8

4.4

1

_

It is easy to make simple changes to the Root Note Blues to produce something a little more interesting.  Notice the key role played by the root notes on beats 1 and 3, and the way that beats 2 and 4 lead to and from the root notes.  Also notice the rhythmic interest added by the triplet eighths (3 notes per beat) on the second and forth beat.  The triplets add to the feeling of “going somewhere” and the root notes add to the feeling of “getting where you’re going”.

More Root Note Blues

I

Bar 1

Bar 2

Bar 3

Bar 4

1 &

2 &

3 &

4 &

1 &

2 &

3 &

4 &

1 &

2 &

3 &

4 &

1 &

2 &

3 &

4 &

2.2

3 4 5>

6>.6>

7 8 9

9>.9>

9 8 7

6>.6>

5> 4 3

2.2

3 4 5>

6>.6>

7 8 9

9>.9>

9 8 7

6>.6>

5> 4 3

IV

I

Bar 5

Bar 6

Bar 7

Bar 8

1 &

2 &

3 &

4 &

1 &

2 &

3 &

4 &

1 &

2 &

3 &

4 &

1 &

2 &

3 &

4 &

1>.1>

1 2> 3>

4>.4>

4 5> 6>

7>.7>

8> 9> 9

10>.10>

9> 8> 7>

2.2

3 4 5>

6>.6>

7 8 9

9>.9>

9 8 7

6>.6>

5> 4 3

V

IV

I

V

Bar 9

Bar 10

Bar 11

Bar 12

1 &

2 &

3 &

4 &

1 &

2 &

3 &

4 &

1 &

2 &

3 &

4 &

1 &

2 &

3 &

4 &

1.1

2 3 4>

4.4

4> 3 2

1>.1>

1 2> 3>

4>.4>

3> 2> 1

2.2

3 4 5>

6>.6>

5> 4 3

1. 1

2> 2 2>

1

_

Tab is short for tablature and is the term you’ll usually see. Tab is a shortcut notation that indicates how to play which hole on the harmonica.  This is different from standard musical notation, which indicates what note to play, including its relative duration.  The difference is between how to play a hole and whatnote to play.  How to play a note on the harmonica is specified by several things:

• which hole to play,
• whether you are inhaling (i.e. drawing) or exhaling (i.e. blowing), and
• what alteration to apply,
  • be it a bend,
  • overblow,
  • other harp specific effect.

Of course, how to play a note on a harp is equivalent to what note pitch gets played, so tab is a kind of shortcut or aid to standard musical notation.  What tab doesn’t show well is timing and rhythm, which is why standard notation is better for really communicating just how something is supposed to sound.  Ways to show timing for tab include providing the lyrics, when possible, or indicating the measures (bars) and the beats.  Tab can also be used in conjunction with standard musical notation to augument the standard notation with harmonica-specific techniques and effects.

I have considered several important factors for good tab notation conventions, including:

• Using standard ASCII characters (instead of arrows or other special graphic characters, as is seen so often) so the tab can be easily typed on a standard keyboard and e-mailed or posted on web pages, etc.
• Keeping all the characters for a note or chord on the same line, for ease of reading
• Not using letters like B, D, b, etc., which can be confused with note names
• Selecting characters that maximize “white space”, which makes the tab easier to scan
• Minimizing the number of characters needed to specify the way a hole is played
• Making it as obvious as possible.

Here is the notation I use for describing how to play a hole: 

Notation Convention	Example	Meaning
A number name by itself means a draw note	3	3 draw
A number followed by a greater than sign “>” means a blow note	3>	3 blow
each apostrophe ‘ means a 1/2 step bend	3′  3”  8>’	3 draw half step bend  3 draw whole step bend  8 blow bend
a sharp sign “#” after a number means overbend	6>#  7#	6 overblow  7 overdraw
a tilde “~” before a number means a dip bend	~4	smooth bend from 4′ to 4
an ampersand “&” between numbers means play them at the same time	1&4  1>&2>&3>	octave on 1 and 4 draw  chord on 1, 2, and 3 blow
a slash / between numbers means a slur	2/3	2 draw with a little 3 draw
a percent % before a number means “tongue slap” the note	%4	slap the 4 draw
2 percents %% between two numbers means “flutter tongue”	2%%5	draw 2, 5; flutter on 3, 4
an equal sign = between two numbers means a two hole shake	4=5	shake between 4 and 5 draw
a vertical bar “|” separates measures	2 3 | 3 2	1st bar: 2 3, 2nd bar: 3 2
a lower case “v” after a number means add vibrato to the note	3>v	3 blow with vibrato

Here is an example of some tab.

• Blue Midnight as by Charlie McCoy in his “Tribute to Little Walter”

“Misty” 
Lyrics by Johnny Burke, Music by Erroll Garner

Listen to my version in Real Audio.

verse: 
Look at me, 
 ~4    3   2’… 
I’m as helpless as a  kitten  up a tree, 
1   2> 2″    5>.. 5> 6> 5> 4.. 3  2 2>… 
And I feel like I’m clinging to a cloud; 
1>   1 2>  2     3      4  4    4   4′ 4.. 
I can’t un-der-stand, I get misty just holding your hand. (repeat for 2nd) 
4> 3   4>  4      2      3″ 3  4> 2> 2>  2′   2      3″     2 
Bridge: 
You can say that you’re leading me on 
2       3″   3     4      5>     5     5     5   5… 
But it’s just what I want you to do. 
5>   5   ~6    6>  4  5>   5>  6> 5> 
Don’t you notice how hopelessly  I’m lost, 
6>       6    7  8      8>    9>’ 9>’ 9>’ 8> 9>’… 
That’s why I’m foll-ow-ing you. (DS for 3rd verse) 
9>’       9>’ 8> 10>” 9>’ 8> 8 (fill for turnaround)

I just wanted to add a couple comments about Jerry Portnoy’s rendition of Misty. I heard him do it at SPAH 97, and–despite not being that fond of the song before hand–I was blown away by how great a job that Jerry did. He was so attentive to the details.. rhythmic, pitch–especially on the embarrassingly exposed intermediate bends (3 draw whole step (3″) and 2 draw half step (2′) bend), and tone (see note with pitch). It’s a piece where “the slow” is definitely in evidence, less is more. His tone on the bends was just killer.. very horn like I thought. It’s great practice for those intermediate bends because 1)the melody is so well known, you’re familiar with what the note must sound like, and 2)the bends are right out there on important sustained notes.. you’ve got to get them clean and strong and pure. There is also some good work on the top end. The 9 blow bend (9>’) is the key note of the melody on the bridge.. you have it hit it without ever getting the unbent 9 blow.. same with the 10 blow whole step bend (10>”).. but you go from 9>’ to and from 8>, so you’ve got to keep hitting the 9>’ plain, without bending into or out of it.

How to Make Your Own Harp Tab

Here’s a great way to easily make your own harp tab. 

1. Get the shareware program, Melody Assistant, from http://www.myriad-online.com 
   Available in several languages for Mac or PC.
   (1a. If you like it and use it, send them the $20 registration fee. Unbelievably reasonable price.)
2. Search the web for any MIDI song you like, and download it. 
   There are thousands of MIDI files out there for just about any music style you could want, including blues, jazz, classical, pop, rock, country, hymns, etc.
3. Open the MIDI file in Melody Assistant, select the part with the melody, and give the “Edit Tab” command.

Melody Assistant offers 3 different harp tab styles (as well as guitar tab), and will optionally optimize for breath direction and show overblows. You can specify the key of the harp, so you can get the tab for any position you want.  Plus, it supports all the standard commercial special tunings, or you can define your own tuning!

Presto! That’s it! Now you’ve got tab for any song you can find in MIDI, in any position, for any tuning of harp!

You can even play the MIDI and follow the tab along with the melody as the song plays. This is a  great way to learn new songs.  There are even options that allow you to color the notes, say making blow notes, draw notes, and bends a different color, making the music easier to read.

AND, you can learn to a*sociate standard notation with the harp tab!  This is a super way to learn how to read standard notation, since the harp tab’s right there with the music notation.  It’s also nice because you can get the timing and rhythm information from the standard notation, and use the tab to get the right pitch.

If you don’t find the MIDI song you want, you can always go buy a book of sheet music, quickly enter in the melody, then use Melody Assistant to generate the harp tab.

Links to Harp Tab

Here are a couple of links to collections of harp tab. Note that the notation is different from that shown above.

Improvising Using Rhythm

Here’s a way to add a sense of structure and cohesiveness and “composition” to your improvised playing. The focus is on the rhythmic pattern of a phrase (or riff or lick or whatever structural component of a solo or song you want).

The idea is to repeat that rhythmic pattern over different notes in different places in the improvisation.  The result is a sense of “variation on a theme” familiarity (where the theme is the rhythmic statement rather than (necessarily) a melodic one).

Rhythmic patterns can come from:

• The first (or any arbitrary) phrase (lick, riff, etc.) you play
  •  In other words, play a phrase the way you normally would–but pay attention to and remember the rhythmic pattern of the phrase.
• Some familiar rhythmic pattern you already know
  • For example, try using the rhythmic pattern from “Mary Had A Little Lamb”, only don’t play “Mary Had A Little Lamb”, play other notes.
• The meter of any sequence of words
  • As you read a series of words, the syllables form a rhythmic meter (e.g. iambic pentameter).  You can reflect these spoken patterns as musical rhythms.
• Rhythmic patterns of the song in which you’re playing
  • These add a sense of “fitting-in” with the song
• Rhythmic patterns of phrases from other soloists
  • These add a sense of cohesiveness among the musicians and to the different solos in the song.
• The basic bass or rhythm “groove” of the song
  • Once again, this maintains a sense of cohesiveness between the improvisation and the song.

When a rhythmic pattern has been established, it can later be improvised off of, again, rhythmically, over and over.  For example, take a quarter note and turn it into a triplet shake, or swing eighths, or a tongue switch warble… endless variety, yet the rhythmic theme is still recognizable.  And you certainly aren’t restricted to a single rhythmic theme.  Play one, play another, repeat the first, repeat the second, play a variation of the second, play a variation of the first, play the second, play the first.  An endless supply of structural combinations exists.

The goal is to get a sense of completeness, cohesiveness (it all fits together), and integration with the whole.

This attention to rhythmic patterns is also useful as a “rut-busting” exercise.  If you find yourself getting bored with the same ol’ thing, try making up new rhythmic patterns and playing a familiar lick using the new pattern.

One variant of the “theme and variations” tip is…trick ’em.  Set something up by repeating a phrase or rhythmic pattern until the listener comes to expect something–a concluding note or phrase, a particular beat or groove, a certain effect, like vibrato (absent or present), etc.–then take it away and give them something else.  This adds interest, and builds a sense of excitement at the unexpected–“what’s coming next that I don’t expect?”  Of course this, like most things, can be over done.  You have to create a balance between playing the expected and the unexpected so the music is neither too predictable nor too “off the wall”.

Too often musicians, especially less experienced ones, pay too much attention to the notes, and not enough to the rhythm.  The notes you choose to play should always fit with the rhythmic content of the music.

Tab is short for tablature and is the term you’ll usually see. Tab is a shortcut notation that indicates how to play which hole on the harmonica.  This is different from standard musical notation, which indicates what note to play, including its relative duration.  The difference is between how to play a hole and what note to play.  How to play a note on the harmonica is specified by several things:

• which hole to play,
• whether you are inhaling (i.e. drawing) or exhaling (i.e. blowing), and
• what alteration to apply,
  • be it a bend,
  • overblow,
  • other harp specific effect.

Of course, how to play a note on a harp is equivalent to what note pitch gets played, so tab is a kind of shortcut or aid to standard musical notation.  What tab doesn’t show well is timing and rhythm, which is why standard notation is better for really communicating just how something is supposed to sound. 
Ways to show timing for tab include providing the lyrics, when possible, or indicating the measures (bars) and the beats.  Tab can also be used in conjunction with standard musical notation to augument the standard notation with harmonica-specific techniques and effects.

I have considered several important factors for good tab notation conventions, including:

• Using standard ASCII characters (instead of arrows or other special graphic characters, as is seen so often) so the tab can be easily typed on a standard keyboard and e-mailed or posted on web pages, etc.
• Keeping all the characters for a note or chord on the same line, for ease of reading
• Not using letters like B, D, b, etc., which can be confused with note names
• Selecting characters that maximize “white space”, which makes the tab easier to scan
• Minimizing the number of characters needed to specify the way a hole is played
• Making it as obvious as possible.

Here is the notation I use for describing how to play a hole: 

Notation Convention	Example	Meaning
A number name by itself means a draw note	3	3 draw
A number followed by a greater than sign “>” means a blow note	3>	3 blow
each apostrophe ‘ means a 1/2 step bend	3′  3”  8>’	3 draw half step bend  3 draw whole step bend  8 blow bend
a sharp sign “#” after a number means overbend	6>#  7#	6 overblow  7 overdraw
a tilde “~” before a number means a dip bend	~4	smooth bend from 4′ to 4
an ampersand “&” between numbers means play them at the same time	1&4  1>&2>&3>	octave on 1 and 4 draw  chord on 1, 2, and 3 blow
a slash / between numbers means a slur	2/3	2 draw with a little 3 draw
a percent % before a number means “tongue slap” the note	%4	slap the 4 draw
2 percents %% between two numbers means “flutter tongue”	2%%5	draw 2, 5; flutter on 3, 4
an equal sign = between two numbers means a two hole shake	4=5	shake between 4 and 5 draw
a vertical bar “|” separates measures	2 3 | 3 2	1st bar: 2 3, 2nd bar: 3 2
a lower case “v” after a number means add vibrato to the note	3>v	3 blow with vibrato

Here is an example of some tab.

• Blue Midnight as by Charlie McCoy in his “Tribute to Little Walter”

“Misty” 
Lyrics by Johnny Burke, Music by Erroll Garner

Listen to my version in Real Audio.

verse: 
Look at me, 
 ~4    3   2’… 
I’m as helpless as a  kitten  up a tree, 
1   2> 2″    5>.. 5> 6> 5> 4.. 3  2 2>… 
And I feel like I’m clinging to a cloud; 
1>   1 2>  2     3      4  4    4   4′ 4.. 
I can’t un-der-stand, I get misty just holding your hand. (repeat for 2nd) 
4> 3   4>  4      2      3″ 3  4> 2> 2>  2′   2      3″     2 
Bridge: 
You can say that you’re leading me on 
2       3″   3     4      5>     5     5     5   5… 
But it’s just what I want you to do. 
5>   5   ~6    6>  4  5>   5>  6> 5> 
Don’t you notice how hopelessly  I’m lost, 
6>       6    7  8      8>    9>’ 9>’ 9>’ 8> 9>’… 
That’s why I’m foll-ow-ing you. (DS for 3rd verse) 
9>’       9>’ 8> 10>” 9>’ 8> 8 (fill for turnaround)

I just wanted to add a couple comments about Jerry Portnoy’s rendition of Misty. I heard him do it at SPAH 97, and–despite not being that fond of the song before hand–I was blown away by how great a job that Jerry did. He was so attentive to the details.. rhythmic, pitch–especially on the embarrassingly exposed intermediate bends (3 draw whole step (3″) and 2 draw half step (2′) bend), and tone (see note with pitch). It’s a piece where “the slow” is definitely in evidence, less is more.
His tone on the bends was just killer.. very horn like I thought. It’s great practice for those intermediate bends because:
1)the melody is so well known, you’re familiar with what the note must sound like, and 2)the bends are right out there on important sustained notes.. you’ve got to get them clean and strong and pure. There is also some good work on the top end. The 9 blow bend (9>’) is the key note of the melody on the bridge.. you have it hit it without ever getting the unbent 9 blow.. same with the 10 blow whole step bend (10>”).. but you go from 9>’ to and from 8>, so you’ve got to keep hitting the 9>’ plain, without bending into or out of it.

How to Make Your Own Harp Tab

Here’s a great way to easily make your own harp tab. 

1. Get the shareware program, Melody Assistant, from http://www.myriad-online.com
   Available in several languages for Mac or PC.
   (1a. If you like it and use it, send them the $20 registration fee. Unbelievably reasonable price.)
2. Search the web for any MIDI song you like, and download it. 
   There are thousands of MIDI files out there for just about any music style you could want, including blues, jazz, classical, pop, rock, country, hymns, etc.
3. Open the MIDI file in Melody Assistant, select the part with the melody, and give the “Edit Tab” command.

Melody Assistant offers 3 different harp tab styles (as well as guitar tab), and will optionally optimize for breath direction and show overblows. You can specify the key of the harp, so you can get the tab for any position you want.  Plus, it supports all the standard commercial special tunings, or you can define your own tuning!

Presto! That’s it! Now you’ve got tab for any song you can find in MIDI, in any position, for any tuning of harp!

You can even play the MIDI and follow the tab along with the melody as the song plays. This is a  great way to learn new songs.  There are even options that allow you to color the notes, say making blow notes, draw notes, and bends a different color, making the music easier to read.

AND, you can learn to a*sociate standard notation with the harp tab!  This is a super way to learn how to read standard notation, since the harp tab’s right there with the music notation.  It’s also nice because you can get the timing and rhythm information from the standard notation, and use the tab to get the right pitch.

If you don’t find the MIDI song you want, you can always go buy a book of sheet music, quickly enter in the melody, then use Melody Assistant to generate the harp tab.

Diatonic Harmonica Techniques

This table lists a large variety of techniques that can be used for playing the diatonic harmonica.  These are in some order of difficulty, however even simple techniques can require much practice and expertise to master. The harmonica is sometimes called the easiest instrument to play, but the most difficult to master.  While that is certainly arguable, don’t think that becoming an expert on the harmonica is easy or will happen over night, despite what some book titles might lead you to believe…

This table should give you an idea about “where you are” in your ability, and what techniques you still need to master.

I’ve included sample Real Audio clips to demonstrate most of these techniques, where it makes sense.  Some areas, such as embouchure, should not effect the resulting sound to an appreciable degree.  The samples are most all played on a key of A harp.

Diatonic Harmonica Techniques

Technique	Remarks	Sample
Wow, you can make noise *sucking* too!	Playing should be done by breathing through the harmonica, not by thinking about blowing or sucking.  We talk about blows and draws, but it’s about inhaling and exhaling.  The breathing should come from the diaphragm.  Breath control is as important in harmonica playing as in singing. The air should be slowly inhaled and exhaled. Practice playing a note and holding it for as long as you can, being careful not to get dizzy.  Also practice breathing in as much air as you can.. hold it.. now breathe in a little more, and a little more.  Practice breathing in and out as fast as you can–think of a panting dog.	Play
Simple 1st position play (i.e. “straight harp”)	Many traditional “camp fire” songs are easy for the beginner, like “Oh Susanna”, “Red River Valley”, “Clementine”, etc.  These are normally played by ear and use 1st position where the key of the song is the same as the key of the harp.  The middle octave is most often used, where a full diatonic scale is available without requiring any bends.	Play
Chords and Chugging Rhythms	The harmonica lets you play chords as well as single notes, and the chords are easier to get than single notes.  The chords can be used as backing rhythms to compliment melodic play.  The tongue block embouchure is normally used so that chords can be played and then blocked to produce single notes.  Chord chugging can make use of rhythmic breathing patterns.	Play Play
Single notes	Because of the close proximity of the holes on diatonic harmonicas, some technique and practice is required in order to get clean single notes.  The way of putting the mouth on the harp is called embouchure, and several different embouchures can be used to get single notes. The main embouchures are the pucker or lip block, the tongue block, and the U-block or slotted tongue.	Play
The 2 draw	The hole-2 draw is often problematic for beginners, and sometimes the 1 draw as well.  Many beginners think there’s something wrong with the harp, because this note won’t play.  The usual reason is a “pre-bend” condition where the mouth/vocal tract shape causes a flatted note or keeps the note from sounding.  The beginner should concentrate on a mouth shape for making an “eeeee” sound, and might want to let a little air in through the nose at first to help play the note.  If you can draw holes 1-2-3 and hear the 2 draw note, you know the harp is okay.	Play
Hand techniques	Cupping the harp with the hands, and opening/closing the hands and fingers is a common and traditional way to achieve very characteristic harmonica specific sounds.  The key is getting a very air-tight cup with the hands, which mutes the sound.  Opening and closing this cup creates the characteristic “wah-wah” sound of the harmonica.	Play
Multiple key harmonicas	Diatonic harmonicas come in all different keys (i.e. C, D, E, … Ab, Bb, F#, etc.). The normal range of harps from low to high (such as when harps are offered in a set) is G at the low end to F# on the high end, but doubled keys add high G and low harps from D (or even low C). The sample has chords for A, C, and D harps, 3 of the most common keys.	Play
Note articulations	The tongue can be used to start or attack notes differently, which changes the color of the notes and adds variety to the sound of the harp.  These articulations can be associated with various spoken syllables, like saying “ta” or “ka” or “da” or “ha” or “ga”, etc.  Articulation can also be done by slightly lifting the upper lip off the harp and replacing it in a sort of “biting” or “kissing” the harp fashion.  Articulations are easiest using the pucker/lip block embouchure, but can also be done using tongue blocking.	Play
Shakes	A shake is a rapid alternation between adjacent holes. Shakes are similar to trills, but the notes are more than 1/2 step apart. Sometimes shakes are called “warbles”.  Shakes are commonly done by shaking the head from side to side, but can also be done by moving the harp from side to side, twisting the harp, or some combination thereof.  More advanced shakes can incorporate note bending to add variety.  The samples are from Stormy Sea II.	Play Play Play
2nd position (i.e. “cross harp”)	2nd position is the most commonly used approach to playing blues, rock, and country music.  The scale for 2nd position is a 5th higher than the natural key of the harp, for example, for a key of C harp playing it in 2nd position means playing in the key of G.  2nd position starts on the 2 draw and uses mostly draw notes, especially on the low end of the harp, rather than mostly blow notes as in 1st position (the key of the harp).  The draw notes provide more possibilities for bends and expressive vibrato than the blow notes.	Play
Draw Bends as ornaments	When beginners first achieve draw bends, which are available on holes 1-6, they are primarily quick changes from the natural note, like a quick flattening of a note continuously bending a little down and then back up to the primary note.  In other words, the bent notes are not used as notes in their own right.  The note bends, but the player has little control over the depth and duration or the note. The sample has a thin weak sounding draw bend, and is an example of what NOT to do.	Play
Blow Bends as ornaments	Blow bends are available on holes 7-10.  The sample has a thin weak sounding blow bend, and is an example of what NOT to do.	Play
Dip bend	A dip bend is a quick smooth bend into the note to be played.  This technique is frequently used to ornament notes, especially on the draw notes.  It is done by initially attacking the hole as a bent note, then gradually releasing the bend to slide into the final note.  Or, the hole can be started unbent, and a smooth gradual bend can be used to slide into the final bent note.  The sample clip is from Stormy Sea II.	Play
Glissando	A glissando is a sequence of notes played in rapid succession that ends on the primary note to be played.  Play a single note and then slide the harp around in your mouth.. that is essentially a glissando.  The notes in a glissando are not individually articulated, but are played as a single continuous physical movement.  A “ripped” glissando is essentially an articulation of the final note.  The sample clip is from Stormy Sea II.	Play
Diaphragm Tremolo	Diaphragm tremolo is distinct from throat vibrato, and as its name implies it emphasizes the diaphragm instead of the throat, though each is used to a certain degree. It is characterized by a volume oscillation tremolo as opposed to a pitch oscillation vibrato.  However, when using vibrato on a held bend, the diaphram is used to gently add the tremolo, and the pitch will vary due to the pressure changes. Diaphragm tremolo is basically achieved by repeating “ha ha ha ha” as when making a laughing sound.  The sample tremolo is somewhat exaggerated so you can easily hear it.  Often the term vibrato is used instead of tremolo to mean either vibrato or tremolo.	Play
Draw Bends for note production: – Full bends  – Intermediate Bends	Draw note alterations are so-called bends that alter the natural pitch of a note to a different usable on-pitch note. The word “bend” implies a continuous pitch change, but bends on the harmonica do not have to be changes from other notes–in other words, a bend as an altered note can be played separately from other notes, and the natural note need not be played at all.  Draw bends in holes 2 and 3 have bend ranges more than a single half step (semi-tone), while draw bends in holes 1, 4, and 6 have a half step range.  Bends tend to alter most easily to the extreme range, called a full bend, and notes between the natural note and the most altered note are called intermediate bends, and are more difficult to achieve, control, and maintain on pitch than normal bends.  The sample has a number of draw bend notes mixed in with normal notes.	Play
Blow Bends for note production	Holes 8 and 9 have a half step blow bend, while hole 10 has a whole-step bending range.	Play
Rhythm and melody together (i.e. vamping)	Using a tongue blocking technique, rhythm chords and melody can be played at the same time.  Normally a chord containing the melody note is played, and then notes of the chord are blocked from being played by using the tongue.  Similar effects can be achieved with a lip block by opening and closing the embouchure or rolling the harp up at the back to go from a chord to a single note.  This technique is often used on the bottom 3 holes where lip blocking is more difficult.	Play
Playing from a Rack	A rack is a device that holds the harp so you can play hands-free.  Usually the rack goes around your neck.  Often a “wing nut” is used to hold the rack tight at a pivot point, and often the rack will slip and push away from your mouth.  Using two conical washers or a lock washer can help keep the rack tighter.	n/a
Amplified play	Traditional blues style harp is played amplified through a microphone.  The mic and the amp work together to produce the sound, and what you should get depends on what you like to hear.  Traditional mic’s are bullet shaped vintage or vintage reissued models like the Shure Green Bullet, Astatic JT30, Hohner Blues Blaster, etc., though many players use ordinary vocal mics such as the Shure SM-57 and SM-58.  The Shaker brand mics are smaller, lighter and easier to cup than traditional bullet style mics  Tie clip electret mics can also be used, and these are easier to cup tightly and produce acoustic-style hand effects. Preferred amplifiers are normally tube amps, and vintage Fender amps are highly valued as harp amps.  Popular amps include the Fender Bassman, the Bassman ReIssue (RI), the Fender Champ, Fender Princeton, etc.  Many players prefer amps with reverb, or use separate reverb “tanks”.  Digital or analog delay pedals are a common effect in amplified play.	Play
Slurs and double stops	A slur is where a bit of an adjacent note is played along with the primary note.  A double stop is where two notes are played at the same time with essentially equal strength.  Double stops can be played using bent notes and combinations of bent and un-bent natural notes, especially on holes 1-4.  It is even possible to play an overblow so that both reeds sound and two notes are generated.  A slur has a primary note and a softer secondary note. Slurs can add a “bite” to a note, especially when amplified.  When playing 2 notes together think about 1)Blending the sound or 2)giving each note its own voice.  The sample has first a slur, then a double stop for the same notes. Notice how much smoother the slur sounds.	Play
Split Intervals  – 4-hole octaves  – 5-hole octaves	Split intervals are notes that are played that have intervening notes blocked out, normally by the tongue. The most common split interval is an octave, for example holes 1 and 4 blow or draw at the same time, with the tongue blocking out holes 2 and 3.  Hole 4 and 8 draw also form an octave, with holes 5, 6, and 7 blocked out.  The sample plays single notes an octave apart, then together, for both blow and draw octaves.	Play
Octave Shakes	An octave split interval is played and rapidly alternated with an adjacent octave, as in a 2-hole shake with single notes, by shaking the head and/or harp.  This effect is heard relatively infrequently on the diatonic, but was used by classic blues harpers like Little Walter on songs like “Blues With A Feeling” and “Got My Mojo Working”.  This is a commonly used effect on blues chromatic, and the sample is played on a Hohner Super 64X.	Play
Resonance  – Vocal tract – Hands/cup	Resonance is a reinforcing of sound waves that amplifies a note.  Achieving good tone on a harmonica requires resonance, and tuning the vocal tract to the note being played.  This requires opening the vocal tract and playing “from the diaphragm”. Hand resonance can add to the player’s vocal tract resonance and further amplify a note.  Very minute changes to the hand cup can produce or eliminate this resonance. The samples were played with the same force of breath.  The differences in volume are due to the added resonance.  Notice how the tone goes from thin and weak to full and strong.	Play Play
Vibrato	Throat vibrato is a slight wavering of a note’s pitch similar to the effect singers use. Throat vibrato, as distinct from diaphragm tremolo, is mainly felt in the throat as a pinching of the air stream.  In reality both throat vibrato and diaphragm tremolo use elements of both the throat and the diaphragm, but the emphasis is different as the names imply.  Throat vibrato is a very important technique that should be learned by everyone.  It is very frequently used and adds much to the tone and note shaping capabilities of the harp.  There are other types of vibrato that can be achieved by moving the mouth or the lips.  A slight chewing motion, or chin vibration produces a kind of vibrato, as does a motion similar to whistling a vibrato.  Similar vibratos can be achieved by articulating “oy oy oy” or “yo yo yo”.  These non-throat-vibrato techniques are especially useful on bends and overbends, as well as notes that don’t respond as well to throat vibrato.	Play
Tongue Slap	A tongue slap is a technique where a chord is played for a brief time, then all but one or two notes are suddenly blocked out with the tongue.  The air that had been flowing through normally 4 holes is suddenly diverted to 1 or 2 holes, and the sudden blocking of 2 or 3 holes causes a kind of slapping sound.  The sample is exaggerated to highlight the effect. The tongue slap is one of the characteristic techniques often used with the tongue block embouchure, and serves to thicken up the sound of the harp and punctuate single notes.	Play
Flutter tongue/tongue lift effects (i.e. rapid vamping)	A flutter tongue or rapid vamping technique is where (normally) a split interval is played and the tongue is rapidly and repeatedly removed and replaced off and back onto the blocked notes.  It causes a rapid switching between a chord and an interval like an octave, or even a single note.  The sample first plays an octave slap, then the rapid alteration between a chord and the octave, for both blow and draw.	Play
Tongue Rolls	A tongue roll is where a note is played and the tongue is vibrated or rolled as in a Spanish-style rolled-R.  This is a seldom used effect more than a normal playing technique.	Play
Whoops	A “whoop” is using your voice to whoop or holler while playing the harp. This is normally a seldom used effect rather than a standard playing technique. You can also do barks, clicks, and other mouth or voice effects in conjunction with playing the harp.  Sonny Terry and Peter “Madcat” Ruth make frequent use of this kind of effect.	Play
Growl	A growl is an effect used in conjunction with deep draw bends. The soft palette at the back of the mouth is relaxed and allowed to vibrate; it’s kind of like snoring while playing.  This vibration along with the bent note causes the growl sound.	Play
Back-Pressure Chords	By using a very air tight hand cup it is possible to play the harmonica backwards, by having air enter through the back of the harp in addition to through the front.  In essence, your cup is so tight that when you play a note the air pressure builds up in your hand cup and flows back into the harp.  Similarly, a draw note causes enough of a vaccuum to suck air into the harp through other non-played holes.  You block the holes you don’t want to sound with your thumb or finger and use the back-pressure activated notes along with the played note to create new chords.	Play
3rd position (i.e. “draw harp”)	As 2nd position is playing in a key a 5th above the natural key of the harp, 3rd position is playing in a key another 5th higher than the natural key of the harp, e.g. for a key of C harp, 2nd position is the key of G, and 3rd position is D. 3rd position play starts on the hole 1 or 4 draw. The natural mode of 3rd position is a minor key so 3rd position is often used to play with minor key songs.  A complete 3rd position blues scale is available on the first two octaves, so this is a common position for blues next to only 2nd position in frequency of use.  The sample is the blues scale in 3rd position.	Play
Knowing where you are	Beginners usually don’t know right where they are on the harp at all times, while expert players usually do.  As you gain more techniques like bends and overbends, it becomes important from a technique standpoint (separate from a musical standpoint) to know where you are because each hole plays differently; some bend well, some don’t, some bend more or less than others, some are draw bends and others are blow bends, some holes are good for overbends and others not so much.  Musically, you need to know what note you’re on, and where the other notes are.  You need to become extremely familiar with the harp note layout, both within a hole and across the harp.
Able to go where you want	Once you know where you are, you need to be able to visualize where you want to go, and you need to be able to get there accurately.  This is more difficult when you are going to holes not adjacent to the current one.  Corner switching from a tongue block embouchure can make octave jumps and other intervals easier to hit accurately than pucker/lip-blocking since the mouth doesn’t have to move far because the tongue is moving too.
Playing both ends of the harp	There are usually 2 different octaves (sometimes 3) where you can start playing your song, lick, riff, or phrase…the bottom end and the top end.  You should be able to play the same thing starting in different octaves, as long as you don’t run out of harp.
Special Tunings	Special tunings are modifications to the standard diatonic layout of notes, which is the Richter tuning.  Common special tunings include the natural minor, which provides a minor key for normal 1st and 2nd position playing, the Lee Oskar Melody Maker, which raises the b7ths (i.e. hole 5 draw) to Maj7th and raises hole 3 blow a whole step, Steve Baker Specials which adds a duplicate of the low 3 holes as the 1st 3 holes an octave lower, country tuning, etc. etc. These special tunings make playing certain styles easier than using normal Richter tunings. The sample has chords from a Melody Maker tuning, a Natural Minor tuning, and a rare tuning called Tempting.	Play
Train Songs	Train songs use train-like rhythms on chords on the low 3 holes, and work best on lower key harps (like G and lower). A train whistle is simulated by drawing holes 3 and 4 at the same time.  One articulation that mimics a train is “Tah hooka tooka hooka” where only the “hooka” is played exhaling, and many variations on that theme, like “Tooka hooka tah hooka”.  Other fast tongue articulations can be used to augment the breathing pattern, such as “diddly hooka diddly hooka tah hooka diddly hooka”.	Play
Multiple Embouchures	The 3 primary embouchures are the puker/lip block, the tongue block, and the (relatively seldom used) U-block. The lip block and tongue block can be used for different effects, so it is good to learn and use both and be able to switch back and forth easily depending of the effect you want.  Many players believe the best blues tone can only be achieved by using the tongue block.  Many effects and techniques require use of the tongue block embouchure.	Subtle effect on player’s tone
Playing out of both corners (of the mouth); TB left and right	Tongue blocking is typically done with the tongue blocking holes on the left with the single note being played by the right corner of the mouth.  It is also useful to be able to block on the right and play out of the left corner, for fast accurate note jumps (corner switching) and playing holes 1-3.	It’s how, not what you hear
Bends from all embouchures and corners	Many players bend from one embouchure, like a pucker/lip block, and not from another, like the tongue block.  It is best to be able to bend from all the different embouchures and both sides of the mouth.	It’s how, not what you hear
Split interval bends	It is possible to bend both notes of a split interval, e.g. an octave, at the same time.  You can also bend one note of an interval to form an octave, for example the 3 draw whole step bend (3″) and the 6 draw.
Tongue Switch Shimmer	The tongue switch shimmer is an effect where the tongue is rapidly switched from side to side to allow opposite corner holes to sound.  This can be done extremely rapidly.	Play
Draw Bend Vibrato	Getting a smooth vibrato on draw bends requires a delicate control and balance between the throat and the diaphragm. Without this delicate control the vibrato becomes very chunky.  The sample is a hole 2 half step “intermediate” bend.	Play
Blow Bend Vibrato	Blow bend vibrato also requires a more delicate control than vibrato on straight “unbent” notes.	Play
Speed	Speed playing requires note and rhythmic accuracy and control of rapid changes to breath direction.  It is easy to overuse speed, which can detract from musical expression.  The sample is a clip from Stormy Sea II.	Play
12th Position	12th position (sometimes called “1st flat”) is the key with one more flat than the key of the harp, or equivalently a 4th above the key of the harp.  For example, on an F harp 12th position is the key of Bb.  12th position is useful for melodic play in a major key. To play 12th on the bottom of the harp you need to be very good at the 2 draw whole step bend and the 3 draw whole step bend.
Positions 4-12	Learning positions 4-12 requires additional familiarity with the diatonic note layout.  The natural scales associated with position play correspond to various modes.  Best use of these positions requires the ability to play chromatically by using either valves or overblows.  5th and 12th positions are particularly useful.	n/a
No speed needed	Sometimes speed can be used as a crutch to hide defects in playing. Attention to details and nuance of note formation, tone, timing, and phrasing can require more expertise than merely playing fast.  Details and mistakes are more exposed during slow play than during fast passages.  Speed is best when the precision and nuances required for beautiful slow play are incorporated in the fast passages as well.  The sample is a clip from Misty.	Play
Valved Bends	Valved bends use only a single reed for the bend, rather than both reeds as in a  normal diatonic bend.  Valved bends have a greater potential range than normal bends, but require a different attack and bending approach.	Play
Overbends (i.e. overblows and overdraws)	Overblows and overdraws activate the opposite-than-normal reed as an opening reed as opposed to the normal closing reed activation.  Overblows activate the outer “draw” reeds to a note about 1/2 step above the natural draw note, while overdraws activate the inner “blow” reeds to a note about 1/2 step above the natural blow note. Overblows require relatively narrow or tight reed gaps.  Achieving overbends requires much more focus and finesse than ordinary bends, with much stricter requirements on mouth/throat shape and pressure.	Play
Bending overbends and overbend vibrato	It is possible to bend the pitch of overblows and overdraws, and add effects such as vibrato to the overbends.  Overbends themselves require much greater facility with the harp than normal bends, and further bends and effects require still greater control and expertise.  The first sample for bending an overblow (hole 6) is a clip from Stormy Sea II on a C “Golden Melody”.  The second sample is a hole 7 overdraw with vibrato followed by a 7 blow with vibrato.	Play Play
Chromatic play	By using overbends and/or valved (isolated reed) bends in addition to normal bends and the natural notes it is possible to play every note on a diatonic harp, that is, to play a diatonic chromatically.  This adds enormous capability to the diatonic and especially position play.  However, it is extremely difficult to get tonal or timbral consistency between unbent, bent, and overbent notes.	See “Jazz” sample
Jazz	The ability to play the diatonic chromatically brings jazz into the realm of the diatonic.  Jazz is a difficult genre on any instrument, and especially so on an instrument such as the diatonic that requires advanced techniques to make available all the chromatic notes.  The sample is the song Blue Monk using a normal and a low Eb, 2nd position.	Play
Counterpoint	Counterpoint is more than one melody at the same time. By sophisticated use of single notes, double-stops, playing out of both sides of the mouth, and split intervals, simultaneous melodies can be played on the diatonic harp.  Diatonics have one advantage over chromatics in this area because wider splits are possible due to the smaller hole size of diatonics as compared to chromatics.  Special tuned harps are often used for counterpoint play.	Listen to Richard Hunter <!-- Play -->
Chromatic play in all keys	Since a single diatonic harmonica has all chromatic notes available (though some have a different timbre than natural notes), it is possible to play every key diatonic in every key.  This of course requires a great deal of practice and study.. very few can do it.	Listen to Howard Levy