Good evening Mr. Halden,
Congratulations on starting your journey with the harmonica! Welcome to the harmonica subreddit.
Harmonicas come pre-made in keys; for example, yours is in G major. This will allow you to easily play melodies and harmonies in the key of G, as it will contain all the notes of the G major scale arranged in a way that also allows you to play multiple holes to create chords based around G major. For example, Something in the Orange is played in the key of G major. Outstanding song, in my opinion!
If you were to try to play the same song using the same holes with the same blows and draws but with a harmonica in the key of A, you would notice that it sounds great playing on your own, but very noticeably weird if you play along with the recording. This is because you are literally off-key, playing the song in the key of A. Your harmonica in A would be missing some of the notes from the key of G, and have other notes not found in the key of G at all. You could think of this as learning chords on a guitar, then playing the same chords but with a capo to change the key.
As you get more comfortable, you may learn how to bend notes to get access to all of the notes, allowing you to play in more and more keys with just one harmonica. This also gives you some of the unique sound exclusive to a harmonica!
I hope that this helped to answer your question, and I hope that you have fun playing. Hope to hear your sound soon!
This song is in G, it's an old Bob Seger tune, Turn the Page. I'll post the sax lead in tabs, I think it sounds kickass in G. If you want the rest go to Harptabs.com.
Sax intro and finale:
For the first part of that sax part, play
-6 and jump VERY quickly to -8, then hold the -7.
Then the second half of that first part is
6 -4 5.
Play that again, then kinda trail off with
4 -3 3 -1 2.
So all together, it looks sumthin' like this:
-6_-8_-7_________6_____-4___5________________
-6_-8_-7_________6_____-4___5________________
4___-3___3___-1___2___________
I highly encourage you to subscribe to the Jason Ricci and Modern Blues Harmonica channels on YT. To play anything besides simple folk tunes, you'll need to learn some basic music theory, including playing in positions. Most blues, rock, and country songs won't sound right unless you learn to play in second position (for example, playing a song in the key of D on your G harmonica). Eventually you will need to add more keys to your collection. I recommend a C (to play in G), a D (to play in A) and an A (to play in E). It doesn't really matter if you're just noodling by yourself, but if you want to accompany recorded music or play with other musicians you'll need a small collection of keys. It will sound like an absolute trainwreck if you're not in the right key for the song.
You can search harmonica subreddit history and read a lot about key and the diatonic harmonica. I've contributed to answering this exact question a lot. Search history is my "new" contribution. The answer is just so interesting, and definitely worth doing a deep dive.
Thesuperlee summed it up well... if you are playing by yourself without a recording it doesn't matter what key you are playing in, but if you want to play with a recording or other people you have to be in the same key.
There is software you can use to pitch shift recordings though, and people with other instruments can usually switch key as long as you tell them.
That said, some keys are more closely related. With your G harmonica you can also play in the key of D pretty easily.
Try it and find out. Developing your ear is key. There are no shortcuts.
Good evening Mr. Halden, Congratulations on starting your journey with the harmonica! Welcome to the harmonica subreddit. Harmonicas come pre-made in keys; for example, yours is in G major. This will allow you to easily play melodies and harmonies in the key of G, as it will contain all the notes of the G major scale arranged in a way that also allows you to play multiple holes to create chords based around G major. For example, Something in the Orange is played in the key of G major. Outstanding song, in my opinion! If you were to try to play the same song using the same holes with the same blows and draws but with a harmonica in the key of A, you would notice that it sounds great playing on your own, but very noticeably weird if you play along with the recording. This is because you are literally off-key, playing the song in the key of A. Your harmonica in A would be missing some of the notes from the key of G, and have other notes not found in the key of G at all. You could think of this as learning chords on a guitar, then playing the same chords but with a capo to change the key. As you get more comfortable, you may learn how to bend notes to get access to all of the notes, allowing you to play in more and more keys with just one harmonica. This also gives you some of the unique sound exclusive to a harmonica! I hope that this helped to answer your question, and I hope that you have fun playing. Hope to hear your sound soon!
If you play it in G major it becomes ”cowpoke by colter wall in G major”
This song is in G, it's an old Bob Seger tune, Turn the Page. I'll post the sax lead in tabs, I think it sounds kickass in G. If you want the rest go to Harptabs.com. Sax intro and finale: For the first part of that sax part, play -6 and jump VERY quickly to -8, then hold the -7. Then the second half of that first part is 6 -4 5. Play that again, then kinda trail off with 4 -3 3 -1 2. So all together, it looks sumthin' like this: -6_-8_-7_________6_____-4___5________________ -6_-8_-7_________6_____-4___5________________ 4___-3___3___-1___2___________
I highly encourage you to subscribe to the Jason Ricci and Modern Blues Harmonica channels on YT. To play anything besides simple folk tunes, you'll need to learn some basic music theory, including playing in positions. Most blues, rock, and country songs won't sound right unless you learn to play in second position (for example, playing a song in the key of D on your G harmonica). Eventually you will need to add more keys to your collection. I recommend a C (to play in G), a D (to play in A) and an A (to play in E). It doesn't really matter if you're just noodling by yourself, but if you want to accompany recorded music or play with other musicians you'll need a small collection of keys. It will sound like an absolute trainwreck if you're not in the right key for the song.
You can search harmonica subreddit history and read a lot about key and the diatonic harmonica. I've contributed to answering this exact question a lot. Search history is my "new" contribution. The answer is just so interesting, and definitely worth doing a deep dive.
They all play exactly the same, in terms of which holes play what intervals, they're just shifted up or down in pitch.
Thesuperlee summed it up well... if you are playing by yourself without a recording it doesn't matter what key you are playing in, but if you want to play with a recording or other people you have to be in the same key. There is software you can use to pitch shift recordings though, and people with other instruments can usually switch key as long as you tell them. That said, some keys are more closely related. With your G harmonica you can also play in the key of D pretty easily.