Chromatic harmonica lessons chromatic harp instruction, lessons, scales, songs, tabs. This articles shows the notes on a harmonica, and the reasoning behind their layout. Chromatic harmonica technique note positions masters of. Play it on the piano, using the fingering your teacher showed you. The arrows and numbers below indicate how to play the blues scale.
The blues scale is three blow, three blow, three inhale or suck, four blow, four suck, five suck and six blow. While youre stuck at home, make the most of your time by learning a new language, skill, or even train for a remotework job with our new premium online courses. Oct 16, 2010 learn to play blues scale practice on your harmonica, the tab is below. Before you dig in on the memorizing of the major scales, it would be wise to learn a few shortcuts. Quality 12 holes harmonica and cheap 16 holes one in the same price. For the moment, i practise major and minor pentatonic scales and the blues scale in 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 11th, and 12th position it takes 2 hours every day. I started playing chromatic in 1982 after a few years of saxophone and blues harmonica study under my belt. Practice several scales, beginning with the important c major scale, learn simple techniques like tonguing, and practice note patterns to increase your accuracy and play speed.
Guitar man demonstrates how to play a basic harmonica blues scale and how to bend a note on a harmonica. For example, c dorian would be the key of bb major because c is the second note of a bb major scale, or c mixolydian would be the key of f major because c is the 5th note of a f major scale. This creates a 12note chromatic scale all the notes possible in western culture music like the. Aug 03, 2016 the major scale is a great way to practice your singlenote technique and learn to move around on the harmonica. Mel bay a reference chart for the 10hole major diatonic harmonica and chromatic harmonica. Many beginning players are confused about harmonica notes, particularly since some of them appear to be missing. Harmonica instruction study chart of harmonica keys. Tablature for scales are written as i would play them, but there can be many more possibilities. What links here related changes upload file special pages permanent link page.
Most folk and country music is played on the harmonica in the key of the blow exhale chord. You should choose the quality 12 holes one due to its good sound especially when recording. The most basic harmonica scale comprises the notes from the 4 hole blow to the 7 hole blow. Diatonic scales all contain 7 notes and are firmly based on a key and the keynote, or the first note of the scale, is the tonic. From wikibooks, open books for an open world harmonica. Each scale is analyzed and comes with an explanation on how to use. As i got better at scales, i now find easier to hit the note in the way i want to it to be sounded. This beginnerfriendly course will help you to familiarize yourself with the notes. And because they use fewer notes than the standard 7note scales, pentatonics make it easier to play in multiple keys on one harmonica. Chromatic tabs while not sheet music, tabs are what some slidemeisters like to call cheat music.
Get unlimited access to over 500 lessons inside sax school. Student guide for solotuned harmonica part i diatonic. Chromatic sans is a font for writing harmonica tablature, or tab, for chromatic harmonicas of up to sixteen holes. You can play the blues scale with any g instrument. Learn the chromatic harmonica improvise in all 12 keys.
Playing scales on the harmonica can be very useful. This is just a series of seven notes which help the harmonica sound bluesy, so playing this scale over and over is excellent training. Learn to play blues scale practice on your harmonica, the tab is below. This page shows the notes included in the major scales and how they are played on a solo layout 12 hole chromatic harmonica in key of c. C major scale on the chromatic harmonica in the first and second octave. Finish up by learning two simple songs on harmonica. How to play pentatonic and blues scales on the harmonica.
Knowing your major scales is an essential tool for any harmonica player interested in improvisation whatever style you choose be it rock, blues or jazz. Playing the blues scale now that you can bend notes the next thing we should look at is the blues scale. The chromatic harmonica contains many duplicate notes, resulting in alternate hole choices. Its also common for a player to choose the harmonica thats keyed to the fifth to make the mixolydian. A major scale is a group of consecutive tones from one letter name to its repetition in which all. I had always wanted to learn the harmonica but couldnt really get into it. The solution below shows the gb harmonic minor scale notes, intervals and scale degrees on the piano, treble clef and bass clef the lesson steps then explain how to identify the gflat harmonic minor scale note interval positions, choose the note names and scale degree names for a quick summary to this topic, have a look at harmonic minor scale. Pentatonic scales wildflower harmonica instruction. Crossharp players usually base their play around a mixolydian scale starting on 2 draw and. We cant talk about the chromatic scale in the key of c, for example. Notice how good the scale sounds with blues notice also that an old valve amplifier has been used to fatten up the harmonica sound. Add accidentals under the bracket to create a chromatic passage. It stretches up an octave, just like the other scales we have learned, but it is special because you play every single note along the way.
Here are 7 of my favourite workouts that you can use in each practice session to fine tune your technique and make great progress. I played for years with a great harmonica player in a duo but he emigrated a long time ago. Use a 10hole diatonic harmonica thats the most common 10hole harmonica without any fancy stuff or a button on the side. In all the diagrams, the upper two rows are the blow notes, and. If you want to play along with a band or an original recording, you will. Written on the whole instrument in all 12 keys in notation music and tabs this book provides an instant access to the precious harmonic content necessary to any player. The purpose of this article is to cover one and only one topic. Comparing the two harmonicas including a key of g blues scale on a c diatonic. Harmonica wall chart wall chart mel bay publications.
How to play a basic harmonica blues scale harmonica. When the button is not pressed, an altered diatonic major scale of the key of the harmonica is available, while. Using an eb harmonica a brief overview of how to play and use the pentatonic scale in three positionskeys over a typical blues progression. This is the most common kind of harmonica, usually a small instrument with ten holes, containing 20 notes, also known as the blues harp. C ocarina g ocarina click on the score to view exercises for any scale. Ascending chromatic scales use sharps for black piano keys. We cant talk about the chromatic scale in the key of c, for. Blow key of c midrange draw with your c major diatonic harmonica in its holder, starting from blow exhale, try to pick out a melody in the midrange of the harmonica. A scale is an ascending sequence of musical tones or pitches a diatonic scale is a sequence of eight tones spanning an octave as explained in the next section.
Instead, we identify chromatic scales by the note which they start on. Encyclopedia of scales aims at providing you with a very comprehensive collection of scales for the harmonica. Descending chromatic scales use flats for black piano keys. The scales you have studied up till now major and minor are in a group called diatonic scales. Major scale exercises wildflower harmonica instruction. Scales are often considered in terms of scale degrees, the interval between the a given scale note and the root. The chromatic harmonica is a type of harmonica that uses a buttonactivated sliding bar to redirect air from the hole in the mouthpiece to the selected reedplate desired. A hollow arrow indicates a note played with the slide pressed in.
Note that this is all in the key of c major but can be transposed to all 12 keys. Symphony grand chromatic c pitch range of seydel harmonicas piano view. Chromatic harmonica lessons chromatic harp instruction. A subtle but important point is how far to bend the 3d. Well look at the basic scale, and then two exercises. This will fatten up your blues solos, and provide a new pathway through your instrument.
The major scale is a great way to practice your singlenote technique and learn to move around on the harmonica. While some benefit will come from practicing up and down this scale, most musical passages use bits of the scale only, and not always starting from the bottom. Scales and arpeggios jason ricci has an excellent discussion on the importance of learning scales in davids interview on this site. All of the material covered in this course pertains to the solotuned diatonic harmonica. You can play all of the songs with any key harmonica you choose. The 3d note is a b on a c harmonica, the 3d is normally a bb, and the 3d is an a. How to practice to the blues scales on harmonica harmonica. Chromatic harmonicas can be purchased through the buy harmonicas page at our store.
Play scales very slowly with big bows keeping an even tone across the bow stroke practice scales with a drone pitch using the first note of the scale memorize the scales occasionally use a tuner to help you tune each pitch. This beginnerfriendly course will help you to familiarize yourself with the notes on your instrument. The most common harmonica key is c, the notes on a c harmonica are shown below. You can also access our site through your mobile phone. Usually theyre not toomany steps fourths or fifths away from c. You can still bend notes for that expressive feeling, and yet the melody. Chromatic harmonica lesson 4 c major scale youtube. The chromatic scale contains 12 notes, and uses every single white and black note counting up from the first.
On a c harmonica, these notes form a c major scale. I cant overblowdraw yet so some scales in some positions are limited. Some years back i spent much of a summer holiday playing this exercise with a metronome. A chromatic harmonica contains all twelve notes of the scale and, therefore, we have no reason not to practice in at least several keys. The instrument baffled me at first but then i noticed that if i approached it like a woodwind instrument and applied basic disciplines such as scales and arpeggios that i began to make progress. There are many different diatonic scales, but probably the most familiar one in western culture is the major scale, the one many of us learned as children in school. Harmonicas come in a variety of keys click here for more about harmonica keys and note names. Chromatic scales are a great way to get your technique tuned up. While there are 16 holes on a 16hole chromatic harmonica, they dont number the holes from 116 on the cover of the harmonica. The richtertuned harmonica, or 10hole harmonica in asia or blues harp in america, is the.
More special tunings available on demand for many models in the seydel harmonica configurator. If you take two notes an octave apart and add some of the pitches that lie between them, youll have a scale. Each note is one halftone semitone 1 piano key white or black away from the next one, shown as h in the diagram below the tonic note shown as is the starting point and is always the 1st note in the chromatic scale. This lick is just an example of what you can do with a portion of the chromatic scale in your playing. Repeated or choice notes are shown so you may make your own choice from the alternatives shown. The chromatic harmonica defined the chromatic harmonica has a button on the right side which when not pressed in, allows you to play a standard major scale in the key of the chromatic typically, the key of c, and with the button depressed, gives you all the halfsteps or notes in between. Using draw bends to get the sharps and flats on powerchromatic makes playing in all 12 keys easier and smoother than on a standard chromatic. The word chromatic actually means colourful the scales are very colourful since they use all 12 different notes available instead of just 7 of them. Use a standard 10, 12, or 16 hole chromatic harmonica these songs require a standard 10, 12, or 16 hole chromatic harmonica, preferably in the key of c. The lattice structure graph of the chromatic scale this graph becomes a band known as the harmonic band.
Now that you have a good understanding of bending hopefully. That is,until i caught a video of yourself playing. With a single keystroke you can write a symbol that includes the hole number and. To participate in the course solotuned harmonica part i diatonic, the student must have. Not really very useful for something youve never heard before, but very effective in allowing you to play a familiar number by the hole numbers stamped on your chromatic harmonica. Chicago blues legend, little walter, discovered very early that blues can be played on a chromatic harmonica and many of his recordings demonstrate his amazing ability to play in 3rd position on a chromatic.
Try improving your single notes and bends first with these easy video lessons click here blues scale practice for diatonic harmonica warm up by trying the following with bends if possible. You may be thinking, this is great, but its not very musical or practical. To grow your skills as a harmonica player, you need to learn how to play single notes and scales. These play along harmonica lessons teach blues harp players 101 fantastic blues riffs for the diatonic harmonica in c. This is called 1 position, or straight harp, playing. The harmonic band is a graph such that if we pick any two edges that share a vertex one can nd an edge that contains the other two vertices making a triangle which is a type of triad in musical terms. Sep 10, 2017 using draw bends to get the sharps and flats on powerchromatic makes playing in all 12 keys easier and smoother than on a standard chromatic. The previous issue outlined ideas for practice, and introduced an exercise based on the major scale. In addition to winslows comments above, i think scale and arpeggio education is important to help one acquire the speed and articulation that is so necessary for jazz and rock playing two areas where jason. Band 1 chromatic scales a chromatic scale like playing the fingering chart you will play every possible note on your instrument, in order, from low to high, or high to low. Notice in the sharped keys those with sharps that the keys progressively add one more sharp each timelike the key of g has one sharp, d has two, a has three, and so on. Pentatonic scales are fivenote scales that sound good over just about any kind of music.
Harmonica wall chart wall chart mel bay publications, inc. Now that you can bend notes the next thing we should look at is the blues scale. How to play chromatic harmonica songs, tabs, scales. Begin by playing a major scale, namely 4b 4d 5b 5d 6b 6d 7d 7b, like this. That is why we have provided a lick for you to learn.
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