What is the difference between a harmonica and a blues harp

If your goal is to be able to sit in with others, jam with bands and play in most any situation, it would be ideal to have all 12 keys, plus Low F and High G. However, if you are just getting started, we feel that owning the first 5 keys listed above would give you enough flexibility to play in many situations. Posted at h in by dantos 0 Comments 0 Likes. No Comments. This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.

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Lee Oskar "Starter Harmonica". Hohner Crossover Bamboo Comb. Hohner Special 20 "Great 1st Harmonica". Suzuki Manji Diatonic Harmonicas - Set of 3. Suzuki Hole Chromatic Harmonica. All Rights Reserved. This harmonica comes in different keys and is relatively easy to grasp and play. Bigger than the hole chromatic, this has an extra octave below middle C and demands a lot of practice before you can gain familiarity with its full range.

Models include:. It is short and very portable, and the same as the hole chromatic but the note layout ends at different points as a result of the incomplete octave at the top. Again, the larger size requires more time for practice and familiarity. Some examples:. Tremolo harmonicas have a cool sound like an organ but they are much less common in use.

They are also limited in many ways that the diatonic and the chromatic types are not. Hands down, the diatonic is the best type for beginners. But, whichever harmonica you choose, have fun! Are you a beginner or struggling to sound good on harmonica? Diatonic harmonicas can only play the notes of a given scale …. In other words, if you want to be able to play all notes of the chromatic scale with this type of harmonica…. However, 10 holes diatonic harmonicas are vastly more popular than the 14 holes one, so you can mainly disregard the latter.

These harmonicas can, as their name suggests, play all notes of the chromatic scale thanks to a button activated sliding bar. Well, when the sliding bar is pulled , the harmonica plays the diatonic scale of the key it is tuned to, and when the bar is pushed , all notes are sharpened, playing half a step higher.

Now, just like with diatonic harmonicas, chromatic harmonicas are available in all 12 keys, but since they ARE chromatic and thus able to play all notes by definition , most players prefer sticking to the C tuned ones.

You play the harmonica by blowing air into it, or sucking air out of it which is called drawing. You can actually play more than the 20 notes available on these harmonicas, by using these two techniques:. In addition to playing in C major on a C harmonica, you CAN play in other keys on this same harmonica, referred to as positions by harmonica players. And in order to understand these positions, you should first take a look at the circle of fifths on the diagram below:.