Hey everybody!

One of the most special things about the harmonica is that because of the fact that harmonicas come in different keys, (just like songs do) you can easily “figure out” the melody of any song you know on any harmonica. There are no “wrong notes” on the harmonica – only the notes of the major scale, (that essentially includes the minor scale as well) which 90% of the songs in the world are built from these notes. (and what about those who “stray” from it? We’ll let you know exactly what you should with them too.)

Let’s start with a little fun exercise. Pick up a harmonica (it doesn’t matter which key) and try to find the melody of “Happy Birthday”. Did you manage to do it? Was it easy? Did you have to “recalculate” the starting note because you got “stuck” without a certain note? We’ll give it all a second thought in a minute.

Today I will give you a couple of pointers that will make your life much easier when it comes to “figuring out” your favorite songs by ear and to actually make yourself sound good when you play the songs.

Today’s post will be aimed both at beginners and intermediate level players and I got good new stuff for everybody.

Let’s start.

5 Steps to Play ANY Song You Want BY EAR

When you know how to approach it – your harmonica can play ANY song you want. Let’s see how.

Step 1 – Learn How to Play Single Notes

One of the first things you’ll wanna learn on the harmonica, and which will open up the world of playing songs for you, is how to deliberately only play one note on the harmonica – instead of hitting a couple of notes at the same time – which is essentially the “default” sound of the harmonica.

There are two main ways to do this. One of them is what I like to call the “U-Shaped tongue” and the other one is when you pucker your lips tight enough so the air that comes out of your mouth only goes into one hole. I give very clear video examples to both these techniques in the Harmonica Jamz video course lesson #3.

Step  2 – Figure out What Note You Should Begin With

If you’ve done that “Happy Birthday” exercise, you might have noticed that the 4B might sound like a good starting point for the song. The thing is, only a couple of notes later you’ll realize that you get “stuck” at the last “Ha–ppy birthday” note which is “not on the harmonica”. Instead, if you would have started on the 6B you wouldn’t have that problem. And that’s what I am talking about – so play the whole melody until you’re sure that you’ve found the right starting note.

From there the rest is just trial and error while using your ears, and the more you’ll do it – the easier and more fun it will become, and also you will already be able to memorize the tunes you love which will let you build a cool repertoire!

A shortcut you can take here is to look up the harmonica tabs online for that song and find what note it should start on (only the first note) – but remember that this will take away the challenge from your ears (which is important in order to get better) and also remember that many harmonica tabs online are simply not correct – which is something you can notice by yourself.

Guitars are far more tricky instruments to figure out songs by ear on – because you have ALL the notes, and not just the “relevant” notes, and also because the stringed layout is much more confusing than the simple “left to right” notes layout of the harmonica.

Step 3 – Start with These Examples:

Here’s a couple of songs for you to start playing around with as a beginning. I’ll even give you the first note. After you try to figure out a couple of these songs, try to figure out one melody of a song that you personally like – without any help of “given first notes”. Remember – you can play these songs on any diatonic harmonica regardless of the key it is in – and different harmonica keys will make the song sound totally new and different!

• The Beatles – Hey Jude. Starts on the 6B.
• John Denver – Country Roads. 6B.
• Leonard Cohen – Hallelujah. 5B.
• Adele – Make You Feel My Love. 6B.
• Lynyrd Skynyrd – Sweet Home Alabama. 7D.

Step 4 – Add Some Soul Into The Song

Some of the beginning harmonica players can play many songs, but they still often sound “stiff’ when they play. What you can do to start getting around this is to visualize that you are actually “singing” the words (imagine the lyrics coming out of your mouth when you play) through your harmonica. Put some soul into it.

Techniques like the Vibrato will help you add a LOT more depth to your sound.

Remember to pour some soul into the harmonica when you play your songs. Otherwise you might just sound “stiff”.

Step 5 – A Bonus Step to Help You Memorize the Notes of a Song

What I like to do in order to remember the notes for a song that I am learning is to “run” the harmonica tabs through my mind as I play. I imagine a line of all the notes coming into my harmonica. Sometimes I imagine the notes with the B/D (blow / draw) system: 5B 6B 6D 6B etc. At other times I like to imagine the notes as numbers attached to arrows pointing up or down. 5⬆ for a blow note for example and 5⬇ for a draw note.

A note for intermediate / advanced players who can already bend notes: Sometimes you’ll find a song melody that simply HAS that one note that demands a bend and there’s no way around it because it’s simply out of the scale. When you find that song, first of all, make sure that you’ve at least found the starting note which is “the path of least resistance” and that only demands a bend in one note instead of 3-4. (Unless you’re looking for the bends deliberately, to get that more soulful sound.) Then, practice your bend to be precise to the point where you want it to be. You can use this chart to help you:

Another note for the more advanced harmonica players: A creative thing you can do and sometimes sounds great when you’re “missing” a note in the octave, is to use this as an excuse to jump up / move down an octave and finish the musical phrase at that other octave. This will really make your listeners open up their ears! A tiny example would be to start to play the first line of the song Hallelujah in the middle octave (it starts on the 5B) and instead of playing the last note (“Do you?”) on the 6B, move down an octave and play that same note on the 3B. Try it and see the cool touch that it gives to the song.

Remember that the more you’ll try it, you’ll find out that your ears get much better and this whole “figuring out songs by ear” thing becomes much more easy, rewarding and fun! The harmonica is literally the best instrument to improve your ears.

Enjoy!