You probably already know how to whistle or hum dozens of tunes. So the best way to get started playing melody on the harmonica is to try to find some of those melodies in the harmonica. Here, you find several familiar tunes that are played in the middle register.
The harmonica tablature (or tab) under the written music tells you the holes and breaths to play. By listening to the audio tracks and then reading the tab with the words to help guide you, you can get started playing these tunes.
You don’t need to read the musical notation above the tab to learn these tunes. However, reading music is a useful skill, and you should learn it.
Notation gives you one important thing that tab doesn’t: how long to hold each note. If you’ve never heard the tune and don’t have a recording for reference, you can learn the time values of a melody from notation. To help you understand how long to hold each note, the beat count for each bar is written above the notation.
Good Night, Ladies
Playing the first several notes in Good Night, Ladies allows you to practice two important skills:
Sliding to a neighboring hole on the same breath. (Remember to use a single breath for this series of blow notes.)
Making simultaneous breath and hole changes.
Michael, Row the Boat Ashore
The Civil War-era spiritual Michael, Row the Boat Ashore, lets you practice sliding between Holes 4, 5, and 6 on the blow notes and then ends with a series of scalewise moves (notes that move to a series of neighboring notes in the scale) from Draw 5 back to Blow 4.
Mary Had a Little Lamb
Mary Had a Little Lamb starts right in with combined hole and breath changes.
Try stringing Good Night, Ladies and Mary Had a Little Lamb into one long tune. They fit together, so you’ll have your first medley!
Amazing Grace
The words and music for Amazing Grace existed independently before they were united in 1835, and together they’ve become one of the world’s best-loved hymns. Here, you see the tune played in the key of F on a C-harmonica (this is called 12th position).
The melody to Amazing Grace exists in many different versions. The one you listen to here may not be the one you are familiar with. When you’re familiar with playing this version, you can change it to match other versions if you like.
