Online Harmonica

Ten holes, twenty reeds

This is a 10-hole diatonic harmonica in Richter tuning, the blues harp or mouth organ almost everyone starts on. Every hole has two reeds behind it: one sounds when you blow and the other when you draw, which is why each hole on the instrument above is split in two. The top half blows and the bottom half draws, hole 1 is on the left at the low end, and the hole numbers are stamped along the comb the way they are on the real one.

In C, the blow reeds from hole 1 to 10 are C4 E4 G4 C5 E5 G5 C6 E6 G6 C7 and the draw reeds are D4 G4 B4 D5 F5 A5 B5 D6 F6 A6 — from C4 to C7, three octaves. The blow row is one major chord repeated, so any holes you blow together sound good together. The draw row is the chord a fifth above, and it is where the harmonica’s bluesy sound lives. Holes 4 to 7 give the only complete major scale without bending, which is why melodies sit there.

How to play it

Press and hold the top half of a hole to blow it and the bottom half to draw it; the note lasts as long as your finger stays down, the way a harmonica note lasts as long as your breath. Slide along the comb to run from hole to hole in one breath. Several fingers can hold several holes, but only in one direction at a time: start a draw while you are blowing and the blow notes stop, because one mouth cannot do both.

The Chord control makes every press cover three neighbouring holes, the way a mouth does when it is not narrowed to a single hole. Blow chords are major; the low draw chord is the one train rhythms and blues backing are made of. Throat vibrato adds the pulse players make in the throat on a held note.

On a computer keyboard the number row blows holes 1 to 10 and the row under it draws them — 1 to 0, and Q to P — so your hand makes the same shape as the instrument. The down arrow sets a bend for the keys and the up arrow takes it off. The labels can show the harmonica tab for each reed, the note names, both or neither.

Bends, and why every hole is different

Bending is the sound of the blues harmonica, and it is the thing this one is built around. A bend is not an effect applied to a note. Each hole is a pair of reeds sharing one chamber, and by changing the shape of your mouth you pull the higher of the two reeds down toward the lower one. So a hole can bend only as far as the gap between its reeds, less a semitone — and that gap is different in every hole.

That is why the notes you can bend to are drawn beside each hole as a track of their own, and why the tracks are different lengths. In holes 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 the draw reed is the higher one, so those bend on the draw, downward on the screen. From hole 7 up the blow reed is higher, so holes 8, 9 and 10 bend on the blow, upward on the screen. Holes 5 and 7 have reeds a semitone apart and no full bend at all. Altogether a Richter harmonica has 12 bent notes:

• Hole 1 draw (C4 and D4): 1 bend — -1' is C♯4
• Hole 2 draw (E4 and G4): 2 bends — -2' is F♯4, -2'' is F4
• Hole 3 draw (G4 and B4): 3 bends — -3' is A♯4, -3'' is A4, -3''' is G♯4
• Hole 4 draw (C5 and D5): 1 bend — -4' is C♯5
• Hole 6 draw (G5 and A5): 1 bend — -6' is G♯5
• Hole 8 blow (D6 and E6): 1 bend — 8' is D♯6
• Hole 9 blow (F6 and G6): 1 bend — 9' is F♯6
• Hole 10 blow (A6 and C7): 2 bends — 10' is B6, 10'' is A♯6

Hole 3 is the one to learn first and last. It holds three bent notes, and the middle one, the A on a C harmonica, is the note a great many blues phrases lean on. Most virtual harmonicas bend every hole by the same half step; a real one does not, and learning on one that does teaches your mouth the wrong instrument.

Harmonica tabs

The song panel and the tab editor both use harmonica tab, the notation on nearly every harmonica tab site and in nearly every book. The number is the hole; a plain number blows it and a minus sign draws it; each apostrophe is a semitone of bend. The start of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star is 4 4 6 6 -6 -6 6*2. A chord is written in brackets, [4 5 6], a lone - is a rest and 4*2 holds a note for two beats.

Write your own and share it by link: the tab travels in the link itself and never reaches a server. Pasted tabs with curly apostrophes or primes for their bends are read the same way.

Songs to play

Press Play a song under the harmonica and pick one. All 22 public-domain songs here play in every key, in the middle of the harmonica where the full scale is, and only Mo Li Hua needs a bend. Play plays the song and lights each hole as it sounds, Practice waits on the next note and shows you where it is, including how far to bend, and Play along keeps time with you and tells you at the end how close you were.

Twelve keys, and which one to pick

Harmonicas are sold in twelve keys, and a harmonica in another key is the same instrument moved as a block: every hole keeps its role, every tab still works and every bend is where it was. Pick the key of the harmonica you own and the tabs you already know play on it. A C harmonica is the one to start on, because almost every tab and lesson is written for it.

Blues is mostly played in cross harp, or second position: a harmonica a fifth below the song, so the tune sits on the draw notes where the bends are. A C harmonica plays blues in G.

• G harmonica — hole 1 blow is G3, cross harp in D
• A♭ harmonica — hole 1 blow is G♯3, cross harp in E♭
• A harmonica — hole 1 blow is A3, cross harp in E
• B♭ harmonica — hole 1 blow is A♯3, cross harp in F
• B harmonica — hole 1 blow is B3, cross harp in F♯
• C harmonica — hole 1 blow is C4, cross harp in G
• D♭ harmonica — hole 1 blow is C♯4, cross harp in A♭
• D harmonica — hole 1 blow is D4, cross harp in A
• E♭ harmonica — hole 1 blow is D♯4, cross harp in B♭
• E harmonica — hole 1 blow is E4, cross harp in B
• F harmonica — hole 1 blow is F4, cross harp in C
• F♯ harmonica — hole 1 blow is F♯4, cross harp in D♭

Equal or just tuning

The two tunings are two ways a harmonica is made. Equal tuning puts every reed where a piano would, so melodies sound the way you expect — melody harmonicas are filed like this. Just tuning files the thirds of each chord 14 cents low and the 5 and 9 draw 31 cents low, so the chords stop beating and lock into one smooth sound — the classic blues harp sound, at the cost of a 5 draw that sounds flat in a melody. Play a blow chord in each and the difference is easy to hear.

What the sound is made of

Nothing here is a recording. A harmonica reed on its own would sound like a kalimba tine, but almost none of a harmonica’s sound comes from the reed moving air. The reed works as a valve: every time it swings through its slot it chops your breath into a pulse, and what reaches your ear is that train of air pulses. That is why the sound is bright and a little buzzy, full of harmonics, and why a hard breath makes it brighter as well as louder. Around it are the cover plates and your hands, a breath of air noise, and a few cents of flattening when you blow hard, which real reeds do too. A bent note is darker and quieter, because you are working against the reed. The levels of all of it are modelled rather than measured from one instrument.

Got a real harmonica that sounds off? You cannot tune one while playing, and a brand-new one is built to read slightly sharp. The harmonica tuner checks every reed and your bends against the pitch they are meant to hit.

More instruments you can play here

The online ocarina is the other wind instrument here, and the online violin is the other one whose notes last exactly as long as you hold them. The online kalimba plays the same songs.

Frequently asked questions