Early harmonicas

The harmonica first appeared in Vienna, where harmonicas with chambers were sold before 1824 (see also Anton Reinlein and Anton Haeckl). In Germany, Mr. Meisel from Klingenthal bought a harmonica with chambers (Kanzellen) at the Exhibition in Braunschweig in the year of 1824 Meisel und Langhammer. He and Langhammer in Graslitz copied the instruments and by 1827 they had produced hundreds of harmonicas. Many others followed in the same region of Germany and nearby in what would later become Czechoslovakia. In 1829 Johann Wilhelm Rudolph Glier also began making harmonicas. Richter tuning was in use nearly from the beginning. In 1830 Christan Messner , a cloth maker and weaver from Trossingen, copied a harmonica brought from Vienna by his next door neighbour. He had such success that eventually his brother and some relatives also started to make harmonicas. From 1840, his nephew Christian Weiss was also involved in the business. By 1855 there were at least three registered harmonica-making businesses in existence, C. A. Seydel SöhneChristian Messner & Co. and Württ. Harmonikafabrik Ch. WEISS. See German wikipedia page about Christian Messner, Of those only C.A. Seydel is still in business.

Europe and North America

Shortly after Hohner began manufacturing harmonicas in 1857, he shipped some to relatives who had emigrated to the United States. Its music rapidly became popular, and the country became an enormous market for Hohner's goods. President Abraham Lincoln carried a harmonica in his pocket, and harmonicas provided solace to soldiers on both the Union and Confederate sides of the American Civil War. Frontiersmen Wyatt Earp and Billy the Kid played the instrument, and it became a fixture of the American musical landscape

Product Information
Harmonica types

The harmonica brand that one chooses usually is based on one's ability to play, the pliability of the reeds, sound of the instrument, and price. Although many feel that the best harmonicas are more expensively priced, skilled players often feel that price and quality are not related.

 Chromatic harmonica

Main article: chromatic harmonica

 Diatonic harmonicas

Strictly speaking, "diatonic" denotes any harmonica that is designed for playing in only one key (though the standard "Richter-tuned" diatonic can be played in other keys by forcing its reeds to play tones that are not part of its basic scale; see "Blues harp" below). Depending on the region of the world, "diatonic harmonica" may mean either the tremolo harmonica (in East Asia) or blues harp (In Europe and North America). Other diatonic harmonicas include octave harmonica.

 Tremolo Harmonica

Main article: tremolo harmonica

 Blues harp (diatonic harmonica)

Main article: blues harp

One of the specialties of the 10-holed diatonic "Richter" tuned harmonica is its ability to play more than its basic 20 notes. It has the ability to produce 42 notes, (including 4 repeats), ending up with a complete 3 chromatic octave range, plus two extra half-steps on the high end. This requires the use of special techniques such as bending and overblowing. Furthermore, these techniques are used to produce many different effects. The most common is slurring (linking from a regular note in the scale to an overblow or overdraw) to the bent note, or playing straight into the note. See the article on Harmonica techniques for a more complete discussion.

Octave harmonica

An interesting variation upon the Knittlinger octave harmonica is the so-called "half-concert" harmonica. This is not an octave harmonica at all, but rather a single-note diatonic harmonica which is built with a single reed-plate rather than the standard two--essentially it is one half of the standard octave harmonica.

 Orchestral harmonicas

These harmonicas are primarily designed for use in ensemble playing.

 Orchestral Melody harmonica

There are two kinds of orchestral melody harmonica: the most common are the Horn harmonicas that are most often found in East Asia. These consist of a single large comb with blow only reed-plates on the top and bottom. Each reed sits inside a single cell in the comb. One version mimics the layout of a piano or mallet instrument, with the natural notes of a C diatonic scale in the lower reed-plate and the sharps/flats in the upper reed-plate in groups of two and three holes with gaps in between like the black keys of a piano (thus there is no E#/Fb hole nor a B#/Cb hole on the upper reed-plate). Another version has one "sharp" reed directly above its "natural" on the lower plate, with the same number of reeds on both plates. "Horn harmonicas" are available in several pitch ranges, with the lowest pitched starting two octaves below middle C and the highest beginning on middle C itself; they usually cover a two or three octave range. They are chromatic instruments and are usually played in an East Asian harmonica orchestra instead of the "push-button" chromatic harmonica that is more common in the European/American tradition. Their reeds are often larger, and the enclosing "horn" gives them a different timbre, so that they often function in place of a brass section. In the past, they were referred to as horn harmonicas.

The other type of orchestral melodic harmonica is the Polyphonia, (though some are marked "Chromatica"). These have all twelve chromatic notes laid out on the same row. In most cases, both blow and draw have the same tone, though the No. 7 is blow only, and the No. 261, also blow only, has two reeds per hole, tuned an octave apart (all these designations refer to products of M. Hohner). The Polyphonia is often thought to allow the easy playing of pieces such as "Flight of the Bumblebee" (because it is not necessary to switch airflow). However, Dan LeMaire-Bauch disputes this, pointing out that all three players known to him who have played "Bee", (Victor "Panky" Paul, Jia Yi He, and himself) have used 16-hole "push-button" chromatics; nevertheless, in his relentless pursuit of further harmonica knowledge, he would welcome any information on player(s) who do "The Bumblebee" correctly, note-for-note, on a Polyphonia. Dan's performance does however include one 24-note phrase on a No. 7 Poly (pronounced "polly"). The Poly was commonly used to make glissandos and other effects very easy to play--few acoustic instruments can play a chromatic glissando as fast as a Polyphonia.

 Bass harmonica

The bass harmonica consists of two separate combs joined together one atop the other with movable connectors at their ends. These are all-blow instruments covering much the same range as the Viol family double bass. Today, bass harmonicas are all octave tuned, which means that each hole has two reeds, one of which plays the bass note and the other a note an octave higher. The lower comb contains the notes of the C major diatonic scale, while the upper comb contains the notes of a C#(Db) diatonic scale.

 Chord harmonica

The chord harmonica has 48 chords: major, seventh, minor, augmented and diminished for ensemble playing. It is laid out in four-note clusters, each sounding a different chord on inhaling or exhaling. Typically each hole has two reeds for each note, tuned to one octave of each other. However, less expensive models often have only one reed per note.

Quite a few orchestra harmonicas are also designed to serve as both bass and chord harmonica, with bass notes next to chord groupings. There are also other chord harmonicas, such as the Chordomonica (which operates similar to a chromatic harmonica), and the junior chord harmonicas (which typically provides 6 chords).

• Tell a Friend
• www.harmonicas-musical.com
•