What key harmonica should I use?
Greetings!
My name is Denis. I'm a professional guitar player, but I'm new here ) I started to play harmonica two weeks ago. I try to learn by myself with this site, but it isn't simple. We play a cover of Bon Jovi song "Wanted Dead Or Alive" and I want to play some solo on harmonica. Could you help me and tell what scale of harmonica I have use in this song and how to play this western sound in the intro of the song?
Thank you !
Thank you so much for your answer. I have C and G harmonicas and I already can bend, but not perfect yet :) I thought I can bend only a single note. Can I bend a chord? But If I bend D major chord 1/2 tone down- it will Db - F- Ab chord... ( draw in 2/3/4 holes).?
Bending usually affects one hole more than another. For instance, Draw 4 and 5 on a C-harp are D and F. If you bend them, the D may bend down to a D-flat but the F will only bend down a microtonal amount.
Similarly, if you bend Draw 3 and 4 together (B and D on a C-harp) the B may bend down to a B-flat, but the D will stay pretty close to pitch.
Some advanced players can bend two notes together to desired pitches (i can do it in Holes 2 and 3 together) , but it's rarely done. Bending three neighboring notes down a semitone is something I've neither been able to accomplish nor heard anyone else do. Not saying it's impossible, but I've yet to hear it . . .
The song is in D, but it fluctuates between major and minor. And no, a D harmonica is not what you'd want to use, because the melody is largely minor and that harmonica would give you major scale notes.
If you've got a good command of bending (but I suspect that's not yet the case if you've only been playing for a couple of weeks), then you could play a G harmonica and work off the D major draw (i.e., inhaled) chord in the first four holes, and bend notes down in pitch as needed. That would be the choice of most expert players.
Howeve,r a safer choice at this stage in your development would be to use a C harmonica and work off the inhaled D minor chord in Holes 4-5-6. This will give you notes that fit D minor, C, and G chords.