Harmonica Notes
Harmonica notes for every hole of a 10-hole diatonic harmonica in any key: blow, draw, bends and overblows, with positions and scales. Tap a note to hear it.
Dashed cells are bends: Blow or Draw ½ is a half step down, 1 a whole step, 1½ a minor third. Dotted cells are overblows and overdraws. On a narrow screen, swipe the chart to reach holes 8 to 10.
Tap any cell to hear it. Keys 1 to 0 blow holes 1 to 10, add Shift to draw; ← → move a hole, ↑ blow, ↓ draw, Space plays again. Layout: Richter tuning, as charted on Wikipedia.
Positions: which harmonica for which key
Tap a harmonica to load it in the chart above.
Every position on the C harmonica
How to use the harmonica notes chart
The harmonica notes on a 10-hole diatonic in C are C E G C E G C E G C when you blow and D G B D F A B D F A when you draw, and this harmonica chart shows them for a harp in any key, with the bends, overblows, positions and scales marked. It uses Richter tuning, the standard layout. Choose the Harmonica key printed on your harp (C is the default). The dark row in the middle numbers the holes 1 to 10, low to high. The row above it is Blow (breathe out) and the row below it is Draw (breathe in). Tap any cell to hear the note, or press the number keys: 1 to 0 blow holes 1 to 10, and Shift plus a number draws. Left and right arrows move a hole, up and down switch between blow and draw, and Space plays the note again.
The Bends button shows the bent notes as dashed cells, half a step at a time away from the blow or draw row. Overblows adds the overblows and overdraws in dotted cells. Pick a Position and a Scale (major, blues or minor pentatonic) and the chart marks the cells that give that scale, with the tonic ringed. Your key, layers, position and scale are remembered.
The Richter layout, hole by hole
On a C harmonica, hole 1 blow is middle C (C4). Wikipedia's layout gives blow C E G C E G C E G C and draw D G B D F A B D F A. The blow notes are the tonic chord (C E G) and the draw notes hold the others. That makes 20 reeds but 19 different notes, because 2 draw and 3 blow are both G. Only holes 4 to 7 give a complete major scale; the low holes are built around the tonic and dominant chords instead.
Every other key uses the same pattern moved up or down, which is why one harmonica note chart covers all 12 keys. According to the same source, harps labeled G, Ab, A, Bb and B start below middle C, and Db to F# start above it. So a G harmonica starts on G3 and an A harmonica on A3, while a D harmonica starts on D4. The chart spells each note for the harp's key, so an F harmonica shows Bb, not A#.
Harmonica bends chart: which holes bend
Each hole has two reeds, and only the higher one bends, down toward the pitch of the lower one. On holes 1 to 6 the draw reed is higher, so those holes give draw bends; on holes 7 to 10 the blow reed is higher, so they give blow bends. Every half step strictly between the two reeds is a bend, which gives this harmonica bends chart for a C harp:
| Hole (C harp) | Reeds | Bends |
|---|---|---|
| 1 draw | C, D | C# (half step) |
| 2 draw | E, G | F#, F |
| 3 draw | G, B | Bb, A, Ab |
| 4 draw | C, D | C# |
| 5 draw, 7 blow | E, F / B, C | none (a half step apart) |
| 6 draw | G, A | Ab |
| 8 blow | D, E | Eb |
| 9 blow | F, G | F# |
| 10 blow | A, C | B, Bb |
Overbends go the other way. An overblow on holes 1, 4, 5 and 6, or an overdraw on holes 7, 9 and 10, silences the higher reed and sounds the lower one a half step above the higher note, which fills the gaps left by the bends. Howard Levy developed the technique in the 1970s. Overblown notes tend to come out flat, and players often use harps set up with a low reed gap to make them easier.
How to bend a note
A bend comes from the shape inside your mouth. In David Barrett's bending lesson for Stanford's CCRMA, you arch the tongue toward the roof of the mouth, close to the shape of saying "KEE", then move that point further back to enlarge the space in front of the tongue and lower the pitch. The 3 draw bends deepest; he uses "KOO" for its lowest bend. Tap a bend cell here to hear the target pitch, then match it slowly with a chromatic tuner.
Positions and choosing a harmonica key
Harmonica positions name the key you play in, counted from the key of the harp. Playing in the harp's own key is 1st position or straight harp. 2nd position, cross harp, plays in the key a fifth above, so a C harmonica plays in G, starting on 2 draw; it is the usual choice for blues and rock because the draw notes bend. Pick 2nd position and a scale in the panel and the chart turns into a cross harp chart, with the G tonic ringed on a C harp. 3rd position, slant harp, is a whole step above the harp's key: D Dorian on a C harp. Each further position moves one more fifth around the circle of fifths, which is how the positions panel works them out.
To find the harmonica for a song, set the song key in the panel. For a blues in E, the classic choice is an A harp in cross harp. Wikipedia notes that the lower-keyed harps, G through C, bend more easily but take more wind. The panel also lists every position of the harp you have chosen with its mode, from the major scale to Mixolydian, Dorian and the rest.
More wind instruments: the tin whistle fingering chart, the recorder fingering chart and the flute fingering chart.
Questions
What notes are on a C harmonica?
Blow, holes 1 to 10: C E G C E G C E G C, starting on middle C. Draw: D G B D F A B D F A. Bends add C#, F#, F, Bb, A, Ab, Eb and B.
What is the difference between blow and draw?
Blow means breathing out through the hole and draw means breathing in. Each hole has one blow reed and one draw reed, so each hole gives two notes without bending.
Which harmonica key should I buy for cross harp?
Take the song key and go down a fifth: an A harmonica for a song in E, a C harmonica for G, a D harmonica for A. The positions panel on this page works it out for any key.
Why can I not bend 5 draw or 7 blow?
The two reeds in those holes are only a half step apart (E and F in hole 5, B and C in hole 7 on a C harp), so there is no note between them to bend to.
Is this a tab or song chart?
No. It shows the notes of the instrument only, so you can work out any scale or melody yourself.