Harmonica Tab

What is tab?

If you had to explain to another musician how to play a tune on the harmonica, there are two essential details they’d need. Which hole to play and whether to blow or draw. You would then have to devise a way of writing this down.

And that’s exactly how written music started. The advent of the printing press then accelerated the whole process. Today we recognise it as standard music notation; lines, spaces, bars, time signatures, rests, dynamics and so on.

Early learning on the harmonica
Tab is a shorthand form of musical notation used by particular instruments such as the harmonica or the guitar. Guitarists jot down chords and finger positions. At KS1 we start by using hand signals, as these are easy to follow as we play. The number of fingers indicate which hole to blow. A pushed hand means blow (breathing out) and a pulled hand means draw (breathing in). A grabbed fist means stop.

Hole 1    Hole 2   Hole 3   Hole 4    Stop

Arrow Tab
Eventually we will need to write these signals down, or follow them on a white board. This is when we use Arrow Tab. Up arrows are for blow notes (breathing out), and down arrows for draw notes (breathing in). It may help to think of the arrows as a push and pull signal for breathing. For reference, hole numbers are also printed along the top cover plate of harmonicas; a good way of checking which way up to hold your harp!

Here is an example of Arrow Tab. We’re using the C Major Scale, a black up arrow means blow and a white down arrow means draw. Try playing the tab on your 4 hole harp.

Here’s the opening tab for Au Clair De la Lune:

Here you can see two rows of numbers. The top row of numbers are for the 4 hole harmonica and are coloured in purple. The bottom row of numbers are for the 10 hole harmonica and are coloured in orange. The down arrows are white (draw notes) and the up arrows are black (blow notes). We start using 10 hole harps later in KS2.

Website tab
On this website it is not so easy to use arrows, so we tend to use B for blow notes and D for draw notes.The one thing harmonica tab doesn’t tell us, is how long to hold notes, how long to rest between notes, and how to phrase things. Consequently, the words of the song are often added to the tab to give us an idea of these important details.

Alternative tab forms
As you collect harmonica music books and explore the internet, you will find other types of harmonica tab. Sometimes a number by itself means draw, while a number and a + sign means blow. In the picture here, a black number means draw, while a white number means blow. Don’t worry if this is confusing at first, normally the tab system is explained at the start of a book. Typically however, we use Arrow Tab to tell us the hole we want to play and which way to breathe.

Harmonica literacy and numeracy
Harp Academy encourages students of all ages to tab tunes and personal compositions. This is a great way of combining numeracy and literacy with artistic expression. Self-esteem, achievement and pleasure are elevated when tunes can be reproduced and appreciated by others. We also ensure children develop an understanding of standard music notation as we build repertoire and musical knowledge.