I just met a singer songwriter and we are working up a few songs to play in public. She handed me her sheet where she lists the chords.
I did a quick image search for harp chords but did not find anything for A Major or G Major (the two harps I will need)
I know well about 1st 2nd and third positions but if I need to go from, say A to Bm7, I am not sure where to go. That is just one example. Are there charts that show the chords for each of the Major Key harps?
Does this help?
Very useful. Thanks
That is helpful. Thank you.
All credit to Harptabs for that one!
@argold57 - Sorry I’m so late here. I’m guessing you guys have already performed?
If you’re wanting to play chords, a Lee Oskar Melody Maker key of A is a really elegant solution for playing an A to Bm7 chord progression. A is drawing holes 1-4 (and you can add in -5 for the major 7 if it sounds nice) and then blowing holes 1-4 gives you your Bm7 chord. I exemplify that at the end of this rendition of “Cool Down”:
I’m playing on a G, so it’s G - Am, but it’s the same progression I - iim7.
If it’s not too late, and you list the other chord progressions, we can help you choose the best harmonica for the job.
Hi there! I have to admit to knowing barely anything about chord changes and their relationship (if there is one) with positions. Can anybody recommend any literature or video material to help me get more of a grasp on that?
I know how to play in positions and how that relates to the key of the song and the key of the harmonica at hand. I can intuitively play a 12 bar blues, but could use some pointers on chords, chord progressions and all that.
12-Bar blues chords here:
Basic info on chords on harmonica here:
Hope that helps. LMK if you have any other questions on the subject.
I think I have figured out the answer to the real question I was asking: What notes do I play if given a chord progression?, People can correct me if I am wrong. My answer derives from Luke’s video on 12-bar blues, but that video does not directly express this concept, and this can be used for any style of music where you have the chord progression:
Generally each bar should resolve on the root note of the chord of that bar. I say “generally” because some bars do not really need a resolution if some tension is desired. Now, how do I choose on which note or notes to resolve? The answer begins with the key of the song and ends with the key and position that you are playing along with the song.
So let’s look closer at the 12-bar blues form: The I (1) chord, the IV (4) chord and the V (5) chord. What notes are those? In the blues scale, the notes are are: 1, 2,â™3, 3, 5, 6 for the major blues and 1, â™3, 4, â™5, 5, â™7 for minor blues. I think when we are playing blues in second position (cross harp) and we are bending properly, we are playing in the minor blues scale and the notes are -2, -3’, 4, -4’, -4, -5, (6 is the root again).
Okay, so how do we decide on which notes to resolve? We begin with the key of the song, for example G, being played second position (cross harp) on a C major diatonic harp. Our example song is the 12-bar blues in G and the root notes of the chords are the I (1, root G) = -2 on a C harp, the IV (â™5, root â™D ) chord = -4’ , and the V (5, -4, root D) chord = -4.
The original question is what do I play when I am given the chord progression? We need to reverse the above. Let’s look at a different song; for this I will use Oh Shenandoah in C, 1st position, from the Jam-Along Song System. The chord progression is C (CEG), C, F (FAC), C, F, Am (ACE), C, Am, G (GBD)/C. The relevant bars resolve on the root notes of the chords: 4=C, F=-5, A=-6, G=6. Emphasizing the other notes of the chord while playing the bar helps support the chord, but most notes in the relevant (major pentatonic, minor blues, etc) will also work.
Assuming I got this right, I think this should be a decent intermediate-level overview of how to determine what notes to play if given the key of the song and the chord progression once you decide which harp and in what position to play. Maybe @Luke can synthesize this into an intermediate level video if he wishes.
Hi @argold57
Well, you have got it about half correct – but unfortunately also about half wrong. And your estimate that this would be a “decent intermediate-level overview” should be more like a “decent beginner-level overview”.
I will not detail your mistakes here, but I will give you a more general approach that can be used for improvising when you know the chord progression. To keep it short let’s use just three chords that often occur in 12 bar blues compositions and restrict this to a song in the key of G.
A very common chord progression is the following:
|: G7 | G7 | G7 | G7 | C7 | C7 | G7 | G7 | D7 | C7 | G7 | G7 :|
For each of these chords, the “never wrong” notes are the chordal notes 1, 3, 5 and 7 which, for each of the above chords, are:
G7 : G B D F
C7 : C E G Bb
D7 : D F# A C
To make your music sound “more bluesy” you can flatten the 3rd note of each of these chords and get:
G7 : G Bb D F
C7 : C Eb G Bb
D7 : D F A C
Resolving to the root of each chord, or the root of the key of the song, etc. is much too restrictive and tends to make your improvisations sound uninteresting if overused. You need to practice, listen to pros and develope your own style/sound by not only using the notes given above, but also by also occassionally including notes other than the 1, 3, 5 & 7 of each chord (when that chord is being played). These “other notes” are most often ones that occur in each chord’s respective scale. So, for example, when the G7 chord is being played, the respective scale is the G mixolydian scale (G, A, B, C, D, E, F). Jazz improvisation books usually advise using the chordal notes “on the beat” and using the other scale notes on the “off-beat” as transitional tones.
I have stated this in a rather overly simplified fashion, but give it a test using a backing track and see how you think it sounds. One can continue writing about this until one has produced several volumes of “How To Improvise” instructional books – but the above should get you going at “decent level”.
Regards,
– Slim 
Wow @Slim, thank you so much for the correction! As you can tell, this is what I needed. I see that I have so much more to learn.
That applies to almost al of us, whether or not we like to admit it. 
Your “thank you” is very welcomed and I really hope that what I have given you proves to be of assistance in your journey!
Happy harpin’,
– Slim
Oh and by the way, I thought it was intermediate level because it seems to go a bit deeper into theory than @Luke 's Beginner to Boss course, which I recently completed my first pass through (including the Theory Annex). But I do agree that this is on the beginning side of intermediate.
I am just trying to justify myself answering hoping this thread does not get hijacked into a “what is beginning or intermediate level” discussion
I understand. I need to tell you that I have not gone through any of the courses, so I do not know what each one involves. And what I wrote is simply my opinion – for whatever that is worth! 
– Slim
Hey @argold57 I wanna try and clarify what your post is about: it’s titled "help with chords’ but I’m getting the feeling that you’re talking about “improvising over chords”? Is that correct?
It’s an important distinction because, when we’re playing chords, to “comp” (accompany) behind a singer or soloist, we want to play the correct chord, or meaningful note that emphasizes the chord for the singer/soloist (1,3,5, or b7) - often times using the Splits technique to play octaves is a great approach here, as the whole Module 5 of Beginner to Boss explores.
On the other hand, as @Slim hinted at, when you’re improvising over chords, while it’s vital to know/hear what chord you’re playing over, there’s an infinite variety of approaches to what you can play.
So let’s clarify our topic please?
I won’t hijack the thread to a discussion of “what is intermediate” because I’ve already created a video with my detailed opinion on the subject which I’ll share here:
I hope a picture is worth a thousand words. In the copied sheet music, I think the letters above the staff are the chords to be played over the bar. On the harp we can blow or draw in multiple holes or arpeggiate the chord. The most important note is probably the tonic of the chord, but we could also play one or more of other notes as well or instead (and even some notes not in the chord.) Then there are the notes we certainly DO NOT want to hit…
I hope this clarifies the question.
Last night, I was in an open jam and before one song the guitarist called out the key of E with a 2,1,6,1 progression. that brings up the topic of roman numeral chord numbering, which I am just beginning to learn now. For a harp player, using the chord number may be easier than being told the actual chord letter.
This is a very interesting thread, and seems appropriate for a question I have about chords, which I believe is a bit different.
I’ve made up several simple songs to help me practice scales on the piano, and with each, I’ve experimented with chords, to see which one’s sound best. On several of the songs, I play three ways: melody with both hands; melody with right and chords with left; and then finally all chords with both hands going along with the melody up and down.
What I have found is that I tend to like a mixture of the sounds with minor chords and major chords mixed together. I posted a video on youtube with my song ON OUR WAY, which is based on the Blues Scale, here 
Each of the three sets of lyrics are similar, yet different in sound on the piano, depending on what my hands are doing. . In this song, the chords I use go minor, major, minor, major, minor, major, minor, with both hands, up and down the blues scale at the end of the song. The song is in the key of G.
My question is this:
Since on a diatonic harmonica, I believe we will only get major or minor chords, depending on the tuning, what is the best way to accompany this?
The harmonica can give much more expression to the song through bends, but I don’t think it is possible to replicate the changes in minor and major chords throughout the song, or is there a way? 
Hey Bobby - love your brooding tune bro. Yeah I think for the most part if you’re thinking about kinda accompanying your melody playing on the harmonica with some sporadic chords on the harmonica, you’re correct in saying you’re best off using a Natural Minor harmonica for Minor, and a major harmonica for major or major blues feel.
We just have nowhere near the chordal varieties available on the harmonica that you were exploring accompanying yourself on the piano. 
On the plus side, we have more chords available to us than any other wind instrument though!
Time for you to start playing piano with your left hand and harmonica with your right hand!
Keep goin on your way baby!
I would love to have you, or anyone else here in the group cover one of my songs.
ON OUR WAY is the very first tune I put words to and you, @Luke, are an unwitting participant. Somewhere on one of your videos, or here on the forum, you mentioned that you had gone up and down the BLUES SCALE, many, many times. I don’t remember the number exactly, but I thought, “Hey, I can do that.”
At first, I was playing pretty much the “Almost Blues scale” the four bend, but it sounded alright, so I continued. The song just goes up and down the scale, as I’m sure y’all figured… What was my surprise when I started checking my notes against the piano and figured I wasn’t actually playing the notes I thought I was playing. I checked also on the Bending Trainer, same deal. I was off on both of my bends.
So there I sat, tapping at the piano, and then blowing the note to see if I could match it. Pretty soon, I started getting more consistent, and then boom, all of a sudden, the song took on a different texture.
As I drank my morning Joe, I didn’t want to play my harp and gunk it up with coffee, so I started playing the piano. The first song I started tapping out was ON OUR WAY.
As I learned the melody, then I began searching for CHORDS, and with some experimentation, went through a couple of phases. My first phase, I played it in A, and figured some chords. Then I liked the way my voice matched better in G, so I went down and started working on the chords there.
While going up the scale, MAJOR CHORDS all the way up is actually much easier to play on the pian0, because of how it hits mostly white keys, it just didn’t quite sound right. The first chord, definitely sounded better to me in Gm, than major. But then the second interval sounded better in major, so I went with that. As I went up and down, and after I had done it, all I was doing was trading Major and Minor chords up and down.
I started doing this with other songs, mainly for ease. For example, on my song LIGHT, I do a pentatonic on the first five notes of the major scale, up and down. When I do the chords, I just follow the natural order on the white keys, in C. So I go Major, minor, minor, major, major, and then back down again.
It makes it very easy to play, and I like the sound of the different chords. So thus was my question about how to best play along with the harmonica.
I think perhaps maybe as important as the notes we are playing on the harp, is the vibe we create. I will post another version of ON OUR WAY on the harmonica in G on the other post here on the forum about WHAT SONG ARE YOU PLAYING along with the tabs.
Again, I would love for anyone here willing to give it a shot to COVER it… 
Thanks for all your wisdom and support @Luke
