Circle of Fifths

What keys can I easily play on my harmonica?

It really helps to know what sounds right on any particular key of harp. We mostly start with a 'C' harmonica , so lets look at that first.

1. Find the C on the circle. This is called first position, or straight harp. You can play basic folk music and major melodies in this position in the key of C. Focus mostly on the blow notes and you will sound good. Your root notes are the 1,4,7 and 10 blow.

2. Moving clockwise around the circle, the next key is 'G'. This is second position on your C harmonica. It is used mostly for blues, rock and country tunes. This is also called cross harp. Focusing on the draw holes between from 1 - 6 , and the chords 234 draw and 123 blow will work well. Your root notes are the 2 draw and the 3,6 and 9 blow.

3. Moving one more position clockwise you will be on 'D' . This is third position on your C harmonica. This is sometimes called draw harp, or slant harp. This position will give you minor and jazzy sounding notes when playing over the D or D minor keys. Playing mostly draw notes in the middle of the harp (holes 4-8) will usually sound very good here. This is also the goto position for playing over D minor songs. Your root notes are the 1,4 and 8 draw.

I want to play with a song that is in a particular key. What harp do I need?

When you have a few harps in different keys it helps to have a quick way to find the 'right' harmonica for a particular song. Using the circle of fifths provides shortcuts in your search. Here is how I go about it...

1. How does the music 'feel'? This helps you pick the position to play in. Bluesy? Use second position. Folksy? Use first position. Jazzy or hard to tell? Try third position. Sad? Use third position.

2. Find the key of the song and count back from the position to find the right harmonica. Example: Sad song in E (E minor). We will use third position. Starting at E go counter-clockwise back 2 positions on the circle. This will land you on 'D'.

3. Grab your D harmonica and try playing 3rd position (holes 4-8 ) over the song! Chances are this will sound great!

Other tips...

• You can play minor stuff over a major key, but not major over a minor key - I don't make the rules, try it yourself. 3rd position for the win!

• You can play minor in 2nd position, but you must stay away from the 3 hole draw (unless you bend it) and the 7 hole draw.

I want to experiment more. What should I try next?

If you are feeling adventurous, or you are limited because you don't have harps in a lot of different keys, you may want to venture into the inner circle of fifths and explore 4th position.

If you go clockwise one more position from 3rd you will be on the fourth position. Example: Starting at C , 1st position is C, 2nd postion is G, 3rd position is D and 4th position is A. If you look at the inner circle you will see the Am is under the C slot.

Great? So what does this mean? The inner circle shows the 'relative minor' for the outer circle key. This means that the C major scale of notes is exactly the same as the Am scale! Really? Yes, you are just starting and ending on the A note instead of the C note!

The inner circle is a shortcut to finding 4th position, or you can find the relative minor by going to the 4th position.

Again, great? But how would you use this position? Taking the C harmonica in 4th position (A minor) your root notes would be 3 draw double bend , 6 draw and 10 draw. Hitting the 3 draw double bend, and making it sound good is quite tricky! You could stick with the notes starting at 6 draw and work up from there.

If you check out the interval chart to the right , you will see that there is a full minor scale available, plus every blow and draw note on the harp is on the scale too!