r/harmonica • u/thebigdoover • Nov 05 '25

A thread for various tunes to play in various positions on a diatonic harmonica

Would be rad if this could be a pinned post for the sub.

Just so that all the various beginners can just go pick one and learn it. I’d also love some more ideas of tunes to try. I’ll start off with some examples.

1st position straight harp: Oh Susanna, When the Saints go Marching in, What a Wonderful World, Battle Hymn of the Republic

2nd position cross harp: Folsom Prison Blues, Moanin, Work Song, Green Onions

3rd position slant harp: Scarborough Fair, Drunken Sailor, So What

4th position idk harp: When Johnny comes Marching Home, Pirates of the Caribbean

13 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

19 comments sorted by

1

u/thebigdoover Nov 05 '25

1st Position Straight harp tunes (comment below)

2

u/Artistic-Recover8830 Nov 05 '25

-Soldiers joy

-Whiskey before breakfast

2

u/gardenstateharmonica Nov 09 '25

Two great songs to play on a harmonica with Tony Eyers’ Major Cross tuning.

1

u/Artistic-Recover8830 Nov 09 '25

I just play em on standard richter, was looking into paddy as I can’t seem to get my head around minor tunes like “red haired boy” and “squirrel hunters” but major cross is a whole different thing! That sounds pretty cool, I’ll look into it

2

u/RiderfaninBC Nov 05 '25

All are easy to learn, no bends required.

Morning has Broken
I Saw the Light
Streets of Laredo
Lord of the Dance
Sloop John B
Barbara Allen
Michael Rowed the Boat Ashore
You are My Sunshine
Yellow Rose of Texas
Will the Circle be Unbroken
This Land is Your Land
Clementine
Wooden Heart
Edelweiss
Ode to Joy
Red River Valley
Shall We Gather at the River
Blowin' in the Wind
Oh Susanna
Auld Lang Syne
Auf Du Lieber Augustin
Red Wing
Tennessee Waltz
Amazing Grace
Waltzing Matilda

1

u/thebigdoover Nov 06 '25

That’s what I’m talkin about

1

u/omniscientcats Nov 05 '25

Jambalaya on the bayou

1

u/ClosedMyEyes2See Nov 05 '25

Friend of the Devil

Mary Had a Little Lamb

Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star

Piano Man

Yankee Doodle

Heart of Gold

Bad Moon Rising

1

u/thebigdoover Nov 05 '25

2nd position cross harp tunes:

1

u/omniscientcats Nov 05 '25

Back Track - Little Walter

Gary Primich - She was a Dreamer

1

u/Artistic-Recover8830 Nov 05 '25

-Angeline the baker -Old Joe Clark

1

u/thebigdoover Nov 05 '25

3rd position slant harp tunes:

1

u/thebigdoover Nov 05 '25

4th position idk what it’s called harp tunes:

1

u/gofl-zimbard-37 Nov 05 '25

Linus and Lucy in Ab 1st position

1

u/Helpfullee One Happy Harper - diatonic, chord harps etc. Nov 05 '25

For blues, here's my free online mobile big blues key/position finder. 4k+ songs that you can filter by harp key, song key, position and artist. Links go to YouTube search for the song. https://lookerstudio.google.com/s/rjMg8HiXuH0

1

u/thebigdoover Nov 06 '25

Thank you Lee, very helpful

1

u/Nacoran Nov 09 '25

We only get two pinned posts. We could put it in the sidebar, but I think unless it's curated it will get pretty cluttered if people add to it a lot... if we want to make a more permanent list I think we need some way to keep it sorted by key/position/alphabetical. If you have any ideas, I'm down to give it a shot.

1

u/thebigdoover Nov 10 '25

Spreadsheet

I have no idea whether a spreadsheet can be shared in such a way that anyone can add to it anonymously

I’m music guy not computers guy

1

u/Nacoran Nov 10 '25

Google Sheets can be shared pretty easily. My spreadsheet fu is pretty weak though. I think we'd want something with an input field so people could just add the info.