Skip to main content

David's Tip of the Day: Transcribing Tip - Figuring out the Key of Harmonica, Part 2

David Barrett Admin's picture

If you use Method 2 from Tuesday's tip (see below) then I suggest you start with the C Major Scale starting on the 4+ (4+ 4 5+ 5 6+ 6 7 = C D E F G A B). Though F can be found on 2" and A on 3", your bending has to be dead-on for our purpose of key matching. If you don't think it's one of those notes, then use your Holes 1 through 4 range since it contains all of the chromatic notes that the middle octave is missing. The note Eb is not available in the first two octaves, so you'll need to jump to 8'+ for that one. I personally use this method for finding the key of a song.

Transcribing Tip - Figuring out the Key of Harmonica, Part 1 from 1/6/2015
2) Most of you have memorized the notes of the C Harmonica, so use it as a pitch pipe and play the Chromatic Scale on your C Harmonica until you find the note that matches the best. Once you find that note, use your position chart to figure out which harmonica you'll need to use to play in 2nd Position in that key.