Tip of the Day

As for the IV7 Chord in 1st position... it's not very usable for the classic blues player. Playing the F7 Chord and its Blues Scale is used by modern blues players like Dennis Gruenling and Carlos Del Junco though. Playing in the key of F is called 12th Position and is pretty interesting, but not common.

Let's now look at the IV7 Chord in 1st Position

IV7 Chord
- F A C Eb

IV7 Chord Blues Scale
- F Ab Bb B C Eb F

First Octave: (1+) 2" 3''' 3' 3 4 5
This is fairly complete, but the flat-7th is missing and very challenging to play due to the tricky bends.

Second Octave: 5 6' 7 7+ 9
This is not very complete and awkward to play.

All said, this is doable, but tough... not many players know how to play a IV7 Chord in 1st Position well (me included!).

What you hear is that the C Blues Scale is fairly complete on the bottom and top octaves, but not in the middle octave... this makes traversing the range of the harmonica very challenging. You essentially get a four-hole harmonica on the bottom and a four-hole harmonica on the top. With that said, the low range is very deep and bluesy and the high end is very high and bluesy... a fun position to explore. Since every bluesy note available you have to bend for, it's a position often explored by advanced players.

I7 Chord
- C Eb (E-flat) F Gb G Bb C

First Octave: 1+ (2+) 2" 2' 2 3' 4+
This is fairly complete, we're just missing the flat-3rd.

Second Octave: 4+ (5+) 5 6+ 7+
No bluesy notes (flat-3rd, flat-5th and flat-7th) are available, so essentially there is no blues scale in this range.

Third Octave: 7+ 8'+ 9 9'+ 9+ 10"+ 10+
This octave is complete.

Listen to all of the the MP3s for the 1st Position Studies (1, 2 and 3) and make mental note of what you hear...

Here's the blues scale for each chord in 1st Position...

I7 Chord
- C Eb (E-flat) F Gb G Bb C

IV7 Chord
- F Ab Bb B C Eb F

V7 Chord
- G Bb C Db D F G

Look at the C Harmonica pitch set and see where these notes are available.

For a tuning to work well for us blues players we need to have the I7, IV7 and V7 Chord notes (individual) and chords (all at the same time) available to us as well as a Blues Scale on the I7 Chord. Having a Blues Scale available on the IV7 and V7 Chords are added bonus, but the I7 Chord has to be robust.

1st Position - C Harmonica played in the Key of C

I7 Chord (One-Seven Chord)
- C E G B-flat
- Found on all blow notes (C E G) and 3', 10"+ (B-flat) = Very Available
- The majority of the chord can be played as a chord (all at the same time) = Very Available continue reading...

Now that you've looked over the scale our instrument was intended to play, you noticed that each octave is played differently. This is one of the challenges of playing the major diatonic harmonica tuning and one of the reasons many players find it difficult to play on the high end. Some of the tunings we'll be discussing try to resolve such issues.

1+ 1 2+ 2" 2 3" 3 4+ = First Octave (C D E F G A B C)
4+ 4 5+ 5 6+ 6 7 7+ = Second Octave
7+ 8 8+ 9 9+ 10 10'+ 10+ = Third Octave

Here's the C Major Scale...

1+ 1 2+ 2" 2 3" 3 4+ = First Octave (C D E F G A B C)
4+ 4 5+ 5 6+ 6 7 7+ = Second Octave
7+ 8 8+ 9 9+ 10 10'+ 10+ = Third Octave

Look how each octave is played...

Now play the C Major Scale with bends to include the missing notes (F, A and B). For a bend chart go to Lessons > Understanding Position Playing > and download the Harmonica Chart [All Keys]." Write it out and try to play it. The scale is below.

C Major Diatonic Scale
C D E F G A B C

The diatonic harmonica is built with two goals... to have as much of the major scale available and to have as many of the common chords available.

Holes 1-4 the goal is the chord... to have a V Chord for the draw (Holes 1-4 = D G B D) and a I Chord for the blow (Holes 1-4 C E G C), this is why F and A are missing, they are not part of either chord.

Holes 4-10 the scale is the goal and it's complete until the missing B at the high-end. Why is it missing?... to keep the chords aligned. continue reading...