Hey all. I’m a casual harmonica player, but I’ve recently gotten a bit more serious and have been asked to play the harmonica for the musical Assassins. I’m not sure which key harp to use for the music, nor do I know the notes I’m supposed to play. Any help at all would be appreciated 
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@Chimichanga_mamba. Hi, if you’re getting a bit more serious about harmonica this is a great forum with lots of skilled players but it’s a time consuming serious BUT you’ll need to recognise a few things like Key signatures. Your Key signature is F (shown by the 1 flat) so assuming you’re playing cross harp diatonic that will be a B flat harp if you play first position it will be a F harp. If you’re playing a chromatic the starting points will be draw 2 or draw 6. If you can’t read music or transpose probably the best bet would be to carefully listen to the music and play it by ear (or hear). mp on the score means moderately soft and f means loud. The time signature also changes from 3/4 to 6/4. ‘On the basis of give someone a fish and you feed them for one meal but give them a net and they can get many meals’ I’ve put together some thoughts as to how you can work things out for yourself. The five lines in music are called the staff the treble clef (looks a bit like an & sign backwards) with the curl on the second line up shows that line to be G so the next space up is A the next line up is B the next space up is C etc.etc. So you should be able to work out the notes. I play chromatic and haven’t played diatonic for several years but I’m sure others will be able to help more. Sorry I’m in a bit of a rush today. Jay1
Back home so can add a bit more: The give-a-way for key signatures is the # and b signs after the Clef so for G it’s #; D it’s##; A it’s ###; E it’s ####; B it’s #####; F# it’s ######; C# it’s #######; F it’s b; Bb it’s bb for Eb it’s bbb; for Ab it’s bbbb ; for Db it’s bbbbb; for Gb it’s bbbbbb and for Cb it’s bbbbbbb Suggest if your interested have a look at how to read basic music, for harmonica you’ll only need the basics, at least to start with. Have fun Jay1
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For this, you want either a Low F harp or an F harp. Either will work and it’ll be an aesthetic decision on which gets used.
On the first page, your highlighted phrase starts with a dyad with Bb and D. On an F harp, that is draw 5 and draw 6 played at the same time. The long tied note is A and C, which is 5 and 6 blow.
Your second highlighted line starts with E and G. That will be draw 3 and draw 4 at the same time. Then you have F and A, which is 4 and 5 blow at the same time.
On the send page, you have a little melody there. It uses all the notes I mentioned above, so you can use that to figure it out.
If you want to do this kind of work, you’ll need to learn to read and transpose music.
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@Chimichanga_mamba & @Hogie.Harmonica Hogie has given you a more specific answer to your question, but I totally agree that if you want to play with others who use music you need to learn the basics of reading and transposing music. Without that basic knowledge you’ll be asking the same questions every time and if a singer wants to change a key Aghaaaaa 
Start by searching the net and have a look at Circle of fifths explained: What it is and how to use it - Blog | Splice and Musical Notation - The Method Behind the Music Also have a look at @Luke’s lessons. It all depends on where you want to be, who you want to play with and how committed you are? Search the forum and you’ll find all sorts of help Jay1
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@Chimichanga_mamba welcome to the forum my friend! So glad to have you here.
Yes, @Hogie.Harmonica’s is spot on.
And 2nd page of course would be 5 5 5 4 4 -4 4
Rock on! 
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