FOR BEGINNERS

There are many enthusiasts who like to play harmonica. We welcome them with a warm heart & ready to share our experience, observation & the problems we faced towards learning of this TINY but MELODIOUS musical instrument. As far as Chromatic harmonica is concerned the conventional one is the 12 hole in the key of C. These 12 holes covers 3 Octaves. By OCTAVE we mean eight notes viz C , D , E , F , G , A , B & the C of the next series. These three octaves are known as the Lower Octave , The Middle octave & The higher octave. The note in between the note C & note D can be achieved by the operation of the slider. This intermediate note is known as C#. In the octave of a particular scale there are 12 notes including the Flats & the Sharps. As for example for the scale of C the notes are as mentioned below.

C , C# , D , Eb , E , F , F# , G , Ab , A , Bb , B .

HOW TO GET THE NOTES OF AN OCTAVE ON A CHROMATIC HARMONICA

C = Blow at the holes 1 , 5 , 9 with slider out

C# = Blow at the above holes with slider in

D = Draw at the above holes with slider out

Eb = Draw at the above holes with slider in

E = Blow at the holes 2 , 6 , 10 with slider out

F = Draw at the above holes with slider out

F#= Draw at the above holes with slider in

G = Blow at the holes 3 , 7 , 11 with slider out

Ab =Blow at the above holes with slider in

A = Draw at the above holes with slider out

Bb = Draw at the above holes with slider in

B = Draw at the holes 4 , 8 , 12 with slider out

B# = Draw at the above holes with slider in ( This is C note only but sounds sweet at landing )

C = Blow at the above holes with slider out ( This is the C of the next octave )

C# = Blow at the above holes with slider in ( This is the C # of the next octave )

HAVE A GOOD PRACTICE . ALL THE BEST.

Our next post will be the notations for the song Baharon Phool Barsao .

Teach yourself Harmonica

We are pleased to announce that veteran harmonica player Ramakrishna Sabnavees from Hyderabad has kindly agreed to guide the visitors to this blog on how to learn to play this tiny musical instrument, a long-felt demand expressed by hundreds of music enthusiasts.

Sabnavees, an engineer by profession, is also a self-taught harmonica player and has painstakingly learned the theory and put it in practice over the last five years. He used to play harmonica during his college days but had given it up because of the compulsion of his profession only to pick up after a long gap. Once he decided to take up harmonica he plunged himself into both theory and practice. The result is today he has become a guru who inspires young harmonica players.