Stupid harmonica question

JohnHurley

Rock and Roll
Ok so lets say someone gave me a C harmonica ( its a Hohner BluesBand it says C on the left side past the first hole ).

Playing the song Knocking on Heavens Door ( G major ) it seems like I can use this harmonica for change in the middle of the song.

It seems to work ok I dont know at all what I am doing on a harmonica just sort of blowing out and in and moving up and down a little.

God knows I am shaky enough on any music theory. G major pentatonic on guitar seems to work just peachy ( so E minor pent ) for this song.

Is it true that I can use this harmonica on the song? Are there any special things to avoid or tips?
 

artyman

Fareham UK
The notes in the Key of C are CDEFGAB the Key of G has the notes GABCDEF# so only the F and F# are different. In the Key of F same notes apart from Bb instead of B so most of the notes for these keys are available on a C harmonica.
 

JohnHurley

Rock and Roll
I know precious little about either harmonica or music theory John, but if it sounds good then who cares?:)

Im pretty sure its not going to sound that good but my drummer seems to think we are headed to blues brothers territory so yeah we will see ...
 

Elio

Student Of The Blues
Ok so lets say someone gave me a C harmonica ( its a Hohner BluesBand it says C on the left side past the first hole ).

Playing the song Knocking on Heavens Door ( G major ) it seems like I can use this harmonica for change in the middle of the song.

It seems to work ok I dont know at all what I am doing on a harmonica just sort of blowing out and in and moving up and down a little.

God knows I am shaky enough on any music theory. G major pentatonic on guitar seems to work just peachy ( so E minor pent ) for this song.

Is it true that I can use this harmonica on the song? Are there any special things to avoid or tips?

It depends on what you are trying to do. Are you wanting to play chords or a single note melody? If the song is in G major, the cleanest approach is to use a G harp, which will give you G major in 1st position rather than 2nd position.

If you have a C harp to work with, you can play it in 2nd position, which is actually G Mixolydian mode. In 1st position, you would start the major scale at the octave on a 4 blow, while in 2nd position, you would start it on the next note, which is the 4 draw. Drawing on the first 3 holes will give you a G7 chord, blowing any 3 holes anywhere on a C harp will give you a C7, and drawing on the 4-6 holes gets you a V chord, which is a D.

There are quite a few places where you can find harmonica tablature for quite a few songs but you may want to invest some time to learning a bit about technique and how to interpret the tabs. There's a really good comprehensive Udemy course that is somewhat of a BGU equivalent for harp by Ben Hewlett at https://www.udemy.com/course/benhewlettharmonicatuitionultimate-harmonica-course/. I've done a couple lessons and online workshops with him and find him to be one of the better instructors.
 

BraylonJennings

It's all blues
I know little about theory for harmonica, but when I play the few blues licks I know, I use a C harp for blues in G, an A for a blues in E and so on. I suppose if you're looking to do a Dylan or Neil Young type harmonica, the keys would match up one to one, instead of the 4 to 1 for blues. Can you get a harp holder around that afro, John? :giggle:
 

PapaBear

Guit Fiddlier
It should be fine all the chords in Knocking are in C as well as G anyway except the D just play a D5 there.
 

JohnHurley

Rock and Roll
Well i recorded it i was mostly making noise but it worked well enough.

Great band practice tonight …

Starting to click really good with Alan our drummer.
 

tommytubetone

Great Lakes
I know little about theory for harmonica, but when I play the few blues licks I know, I use a C harp for blues in G, an A for a blues in E and so on. I suppose if you're looking to do a Dylan or Neil Young type harmonica, the keys would match up one to one, instead of the 4 to 1 for blues. Can you get a harp holder around that afro, John? :giggle:
This pretty much sums up my knowledge of harp theory. For blues harp, use the harp that matches up with the IV of the key. Straight harp use the harp in the key the song is in. I took a lesson or two many years ago and somehow I'm able to play a few songs with the band. My rule is to only play 1 harp song per set since I only have a limited number of licks. I do make it up as I go though also. If it sounds bad move up or down I hole and see how that sounds. Harp playing is very forgiving in that way. Everybody should try it. Just noodle around and have fun!
 

fingerpicker

Blues aficionado
I know little about theory for harmonica, but when I play the few blues licks I know, I use a C harp for blues in G, an A for a blues in E and so on. I suppose if you're looking to do a Dylan or Neil Young type harmonica, the keys would match up one to one, instead of the 4 to 1 for blues. Can you get a harp holder around that afro, John? :giggle:
Many years ago I was taught to use the harp that corresponds to the IV chord for blues and rock songs. I was told this is called "cross harp". Here's a link to Hohner's explanation: < https://my.hohner.de/t/harmonica-terminology-2-cross-harp-straight-harp-and-positions/1263 >
 

Paleo

Student Of The Blues
Silly me! I learned everything I need to know from Griff.

If playing over a progression of chords all in the key of G Major I can play the G Major scale over it, regardless of the instrument I'm on.

Over a "Blues in G", I want the scale in which G7 is the V chord.

And that is C Major.

On a C harmonica I've got the b7 (F) and can bend the B's to Bb's playing G blues over the whole progression.


Here's a fun idea.

Play the chords of "Knocking On Heavens Door" in C on the guitar (or any other song in C) and play your C harmonica over it.

No "clashing" notes will be found over any chord.

And you don't even need to know why.

That’s how I learned to play from Neil Young long before I knew anything about the dreaded Theory.
 
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