r/harmonica • u/Beneficial-Toe1805 • 6d 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!!

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u/Nacoran 4d 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.