Project Notes

READ DESCRIPTION OR THIS WILL MAKE NO SENSE!
This is not my best work ever, but hey, it's version 1.0. Version 2 will include a composition mode, allowing users to compose music with 50 notes or less.

This program requires some basic knowledge of how a diatonic harmonica functions. Blowing into a hole makes one note, and inhaling through it makes another. Also, a diatonic harmonica is KEY SPECIFIC, meaning that it only plays notes in one key. This program allows you to switch keys at will to experiment with this concept. For example, the notes to the first line of "Mary had a little lamb" are as follows:

5 -4 4 -4 5 5 5 -4 -4 -4 5 6 6

On a harmonica in the key of C, you can play these holes to play that song in the key of C. But if you're holding a harmonica in the key if A, playing the EXACT SAME HOLES will play the song in the key of A. That way you can learn to play a song in one key and be able to play it in any key.

Finally, the notes are a bit screwy on a diatonic harmonica.

To master this aspect of harmonica playing, you must know the chromatic scale:

C C# D D# E F F# G G# A A# B

You may note that there was no E# or B#. These notes don't exist. Why? I don't know. Ask hundreds of years of musical evolution. Anyway, each key is made up of a chosen set of these notes.

If you don't know how keys work, here's the secret code:

wwhwwwh

This stands for whole, whole, half, etc...

Whole means a whole step from one note to the next. For example, from F to F# is a half step. From F to G is a whole step.

But, since B# isn't a real musicle note, a half step from B is C, and a whole step from B is C#.

If you don't get it, start over and read this section again until you do.

So, if you're in the key of F, here's what you do to figure out exactly what notes are in that key:

Start with F. That's the first note of the key of F. Go a whole step from that note and you get G. F G.

Now go a whole step from G. You should get A. F G A.

HALF STEP from A, you get A#. F G A A#.

Whole from A#: C. F G A A# C.

Whole from C: D. F G A A# C D.

Whole from D: E. F G A A# C D E.

And finally, another half step from E is F.

Here's what we just did in a nutshell:

F G A A# C D E F
w w h w w w h

Here's where it get's more complicated. You'd think the harmonica would just follow the notes of the key in order right? Wrong. The harmonica kind of follows it's own schedule when it comes to this aspect.

We'll use the key of G as an example this time.

The key of G uses the following notes: G A B C D E F# G.

On a harmonica, from 1 to -10 (exhaling through one to inhaling through 10), the notes are as follows in the key of G:

G A B D D F# G A B C D E G F# B A D C G E.

In case you're wondering, there is no pattern to those notes. You can figure the notes on a different harmonica, however, by finding the difference in the keys and applying that difference to each hole. For instance, Here's the Key Difference between the keys of G and F:

F F# G

G is a Whole Step from F, so to find the key of F you would subtract a whole step from every note in the key of G.

That's all you need to know to use this program. Once you've mastered what you've learned in this description, get a harmonica and you'll be a pro.

Have fun!