Harmonica Tabs For Beginners (Harmonica Tabs 101)

► Get the tabs and jam tracks to play along with this lesson, go to: https://www.harmonica.com/how-to-read-harmonica-tabs/

Thank you for watching my lesson Harmonica Tabs 101 which explains how to read harmonica tabs for beginners.

When we start playing, I’m playing a C harmonica for this lesson. Any 10-hole diatonic harmonica in the key of C will work for you to follow along with the songs, Under Pressure by Queen & David Bowie (Later sampled in Ice Ice Baby by Vanilla Ice,) Reveille (the wakeup bugle call,) and the first 4 lines of Take Me Home Country Road by John Denver (in Hawaii we love Israel Kamakawiwoole’s version.)

Harmonica Tabs 0:53
Harmonica Tabs for Bending 1:55
Under Pressure 3:52
Reveleil aka the Wakeup Call 5:13
Take Me Home Country Road 8:24
Take Me Home Play-Along 9:21
Bending Pre-Requisites 10:00
Funkin’ Up All the Bends 11:13
Conclusion 12:27

Harmonica tablature is really quite simple:

A number alone indicates which hole to blow

4 means blow hole number 4
1 means blow hole number 1

12 means blow holes number 1 & 2 at the same time (aka double-stop.)
123 means blow holes number 1, 2, & 3 at the same time (aka chord.)

Example: Under Pressure / Ice Ice Baby
4 4 4 44 4 3
4 4 4 4 44 4 3

A minus sign followed by number indicates which hole to draw

-4 means draw on hole number 4
-1 means draw on hole number 1

-12 means draw holes number 1 & 2 at the same time (aka double-stop.)
-123 means draw holes number 1, 2, & 3 at the same time (aka chord.)

Example: Reveille, aka The Wakeup Call
-1 -2 -3 -2 -1 -3 -2 -3 -2 -1 -3 -2 -3 -2 -1 -2 -3 -2
-1 -2 -3 -2 -1 -3 -2 -3 -2 -1 -3 -2 -3 -2 -1 -1 -2

And that’s all you need to know to be able to play beginner songs on the harmonica! Now let’s try the first 4 lines from Take Me Home Country Road.

4 -4 5
5 4 -4
5 -4 4
5 6 -6

To play many songs, especially blues songs, an intermediate and advanced technique called bending is required. Bending is a technique that lowers the pitch of a note.Harmonica tabs indicate bends like this:

An apostrophe after a number indicates a half-step bend.

-3’ indicates a draw 3 bent down a half-step (very common)
-3’’ indicates a draw 3 bent down a whole-step (common)
-3’’’ indicates a draw 3 bent down a step and a half (uncommon)

And likewise for blow bends:

10’ indicates a blow 10 bent down a half-step
10’’ indicates a blow 10 bent down a whole-step

Example: Funkin’ Up All The Bends

-1 -2” -2’ -2 -3” -3’ -3 -4 5 -4 -5 5 -3’ -2
-2 -2’ -2” 2 3 -3’’’ 3 -3’’’ -3 -4’ 5 5 6 -6’6 -6’ -7 6 -6’ 8
-8 -8’ -8 -8 8 -9 9’ -10 -9 9’ -8
7 -8 8’ 8 9 8’ 8 7 10 10” 10’ 9
2 -2” -1 -2 -3’ -9 9 -9 8 9 8 8’ 9 8’ -8
1 -1’ -1 -56 (trill)
-1 -2” -2’ -2 -3” -3’ -3

I hope you enjoyed this free lesson. If you did, please give it the thumbs up and subscribe so you don’t miss any of the new free harmonica lessons. As always, please leave any questions below.

Have fun!!
Luke with Harmonica.com

Видео Harmonica Tabs For Beginners (Harmonica Tabs 101) канала Harmonica com