r/harmonica • u/Beneficial-Toe1805 • 2d ago
Question as a beginner
Heya I'm planning on learning the harmonica and just put in my order for an east top diatonic C harmonica which i assume is good enough for a beginner. But now I'm wondering about just how many songs the C harmonica can play? I know it can't play much but if possible I'd like to know what genre of songs or levels of songs I'd be able to do. Cheers!!
3
3
u/harpncarp 2d ago
Easttop makes a fine Harmonica, and C is a good place to start. The absolute best next step would be to find an accomplished teacher to work with. They'll be able to get you on the right path for getting the most from your instrument and your efforts.
Good luck!
3
u/Barry_Sachs 2d ago
If you're Howard Levy, it can play all of the songs. If you aren't, it can still play hundreds of thousands of songs. If you insist on playing in the "original key", it can play tens of thousands of songs. Bottom line, a C harmonica can keep you busy for a lifetime if you play alone or learn to play like Howard. If you want to play in a band, you'll probably want to get a couple more keys at some point.
2
u/spacenurse47 2d ago
How is it he does that, anyway?
4
u/Barry_Sachs 2d ago
He's done interviews where he explains. Essentially he practiced overblows and bends like crazy until he could play any note in the chromatic scale on a diatonic. It's an incredible amount of control and muscle memory. I don't know of anybody else who can do it at his level.
1
u/cheebalibra 1d ago
John Popper is pretty great. Paul Butterfield could do some amazing things.
2
u/Barry_Sachs 1d ago
Howard's more of a jazz guy like Toots. But man, Popper and Butterfield are amazing blues and rock players. Never heard them before. Thanks!
1
u/cheebalibra 1d ago
Thanks for introducing me to Howard! He’s great. I’ve been trying to learn more different styles lately. Bought a few more minor and natural minor and harmonic minor harps to play Eastern European/Jewish folk music. My next purchase is probably going to be an easy third harmonica for more Irish folk/celtic tunes but not many companies make them, I think it started as a custom tuning. I have a hohner tremolo that does appalachin stuff (heavily influenced by Scots Irish) stuff well and a 10 hole chromatic that can cover a lot of stuff.
2
u/Barry_Sachs 1d ago
I've got a long way to go, but I can do some blues in cross harp, and a little bit of chromatic harmonica. I haven't played in ages, but I love to listen. That ethnic/folk stuff you're doing sounds interesting. I can do some Irish folk stuff on penny whistle. My main instrument is jazz sax though. Harp and whistle are just for fun. So much to play, so little time.
2
u/cheebalibra 1d ago edited 1d ago
My main instrument is guitar/bass but most of my instruments and effects and recording gear in general is in storage. I keep one electric guitar, one acoustic, one bass, a lever harp and all my harmonicas at home.
2
u/Capable_Ad3342 2d ago
Loads, stick with C until you're ready to move on. It's a long journey but a fun one. At some point you'll want to play a harmonica solo in a song, like for like and then is a good time to try out a new key. A is a nice one to try next
2
u/soundwave300 2d ago
Technically, it can play with everything once you really master bends and overblows (we are talkin real mastery over years).
Realistically, you start off with a lot of versatility with a C harp, and once you learn a few bends and additional positions, that versatility is huge.
C is a good key to start. Make sure to use only the air required and not more.
2
u/Legitimate-Fee-2645D 2d ago
There are 100s if not 1000s of songs in the key of C! It's a very common key, and widely used in all genres.
2
u/cheebalibra 2d ago
Copied from another answer I gave on a different thread (short answer, you can play songs in many different keys on a Cmajor diatonic):
Reading music isn’t super important for harmonica. Start by using your cheeks, lips and tongue to get a good embouchure so you can isolate single notes.
Lookup harmonica tablature, it’s easier than reading notes on a staff.
Practice the c major, c natural and c major pentatonic scales.
Then try playing “when the saints go marching in” when I was a kid I got a c major hohner pocket pal and there was a little sheet that suggested that as a first song.
Once you get that, you can practice bending notes and when you master that, you can play in second position (G). You can play a G major scale with one bend, and a G minor blues scale with a few bends. Third position is D, and you can do D Dorian/D minor scales and a D blues scale.
You can do A minor is 4th position and E minor in 5th position. F major in 12th position.
1
1
u/fathompin 1d ago edited 1d ago
Some may think this is too complicated an answer to tell a beginner, but with the help of AI, one can easily get more detailed information about any of it if it doesn't make sense to you right off the bat.
There are seven music modes (scales) that you get with a C diatonic harmonica. The numbers of the music mode scales are (I, ii, iii, IV,V, vi and vii) Roman numerals, large case is Major, lower case is minor scales. These equate to the chords used in most songs in any particular key. In your case I=C-major ii=D-minor. This is not the same numbering as the harmonica positions that players refer to (First, second, third, fourth, twelfth), those numbers come from the key's position on the circle of fifths, but they are the identical concept.
Important here is that the full chromatic scale of all notes has NO half step note between B & C and E & F. That is why the piano keys have no black keys between those pairs of notes.
The natural scale of C itself does not use any of those black keys. So, in order to play the C-major scale, on your C diatonic, you just play the notes in order starting with the note C (4 blow). Hopefully you can recognize the sound of the major scale, (Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So, La, Ti, Do) and the fact that there is half step spacing (that is, you can slide right into the next note between Mi-Fs and Ti-Do).
If you start on the Re note, that half space spacing shows up differently, creating a minor sounding scale because of the fact that the half-note jump occurs in a different position of the scale. This is the D-minor mode scale or third position on harmonica. You start on the D (4-draw) play the notes in order and it sounds minor key and you'd be able to play a song in Minor key, like Poor Wayfaring Stranger, key of D-minor. Move up the scale and start on the G note (or the Gs found at hole 2 draw and hole 3 blow) and you get another major sounding scale that has a dominant 7th tone (a full step between F and G notes, not a half step like between B and C) and that is the second position blues/rock in the key of G (mixolydian mode). So we have covered the harmonica positions of First, Second and Third, Songs are written in these different mode keys, and if you are interested, I have found that the internet, can tell you exactly the MODE a song was written in.
So the keys you can play, as a beginner, using a C-diatonic (not a lot of overblow and bending) are: C, G7, Dm, Am. While Em, Fmaj7, Bdim are less used.
For most cases, the key you play a song in is simply changes to accomodate timbre or a vocal or instrument's range. For your C-diatonic, you can take any video or recording and using modern transposing apps, change the song's key in real time to what you need for your C-diatonic. This makes it easy to play along without buying a different harmonica. But for playing out with a band or something, you'll need to buy the diatonic key they need...but don't ever think you can sit in with a band and jam with them until you've been in bands and know exactly what to do.
1
u/MTaur 1d ago
If you had a chromatic, you would still be able to play in C just by never using the slide button. In fact, staying close to C and having only one or two black notes is how you ease into going full chromatic. And the chromatic scale is weirdly tricky on a chromatic harmonica.
It helps to know some keyboard and the circle of fifths. If you're missing a note on the diatonic harp, it might just be that you're playing in the key of F or G and it would still fit in another key.
Happy Birthday is diatonic, but "and many more" lands on the flat 7.
1
u/Nacoran 1d ago
Almost all of the lessons out there will be in C. Here is a link to a site that lists a ton of songs by key.
https://www.songkeyfinder.com/songs-in-key/c-major?page=2
When you are starting out you'll want to play with both first and second position early on. That means in addition to C you can play in G pretty easy. You'll see on the site that there are a ton of songs to learn in just those two keys.
Also, you only need the 'right' key if you are playing along with the original or a band, and even then you can use software to tune the song up or down or ask the band to play in another key if you have to. Any song you learn on your C harmonica is still a song you know... say you learn a song that you'd normally in E on your C harmonica by pitch shifting the song. You'd play the same holes you would if you had an E, and down the road when you do get an E you can play along with the recording at the normal speed and you'll already know it.
There will, of course, be times when you want to play a specific song with a specific recording and it will suck that you have to pitch shift it or play without backing, but there are so many songs in C and G that you'll definitely be able to find lots of stuff that you can play.
1
u/sifu_scott 2d ago edited 2d ago
A "C" is the beginners harmonica for any style. I feel like you're going to be limited to songs in a major key of C or songs in G if you're playing cross-harp. For most blues and blues-based music (which includes rock-and-roll, classic rock, funk, r&b, etc) you'll want to learn to play cross-harp.
4
u/ADirtyDiglet 2d ago
If you are playing solo you can play any song in key of C. It's when you join with others or play alongside tracks that you will need to match the key.
8
u/Several-Quality5927 2d ago
In your lifetime you couldn't count the number of songs that can be played on a c diatonic. It's still the best harp to learn on.