Harmonica tuner

C harmonica: every hole in Hz

Richter tuning, the standard 10-hole diatonic, at A4 = 442 Hz in equal temperament. This page asks for blow 1 to 4; every other reed reads on the chromatic tuner.

G, A and D harmonicas: blow 1 to 4

All 12 keys: the 1 blow note

At A4 = 442 Hz. G is the lowest of the standard keys and F♯ the highest; many models also come in high G, an octave above the G, and low-tuned harps (low F, low E, low D and so on) sit an octave below their standard key. On every key, blow 1 to 4 are the key's 1, 3, 5 and 1 again, the same pattern as on the C harp.

How to check a harmonica with this tuner

Pick the key stamped on the cover plate, tap Start tuning and blow hole 1 long and soft, the way you'd hold a note in a slow song. The needle shows the reed in cents against A = 442 Hz; at five cents or closer a tick comes and hole 2 is asked for. Blow hard and the reed bends flat and the needle follows it, so a reading taken at full force says little about the reed. If the tuner hears two holes, block the neighbours with your lips or tongue. With the microphone off, a tap on a note plays it.

Why 442: harmonicas are tuned a little high, because a player's breath pulls a reed down. Most players tune to A = 441, 442 or 443, and harps from the factory can sit as high as 446 (Winslow Yerxa, BluesHarmonica.com, 2018). At 440 a harp made at 442 reads about 8 cents sharp and nothing is wrong. To find what yours was made at, blow hole 4 and try the switch, 440, 442 or 444, until it reads closest to zero.

Chromatic tuner for harmonica, or a harmonica tuner app

A tuner for harmonica needs to be chromatic and set to the A the harp was made at; a guitar tuner works too once it is switched to chromatic. This page asks for blow 1 to 4 in four keys and installs nothing; for every other hole, and for bends, the chromatic tuner names any note with its Hz. Harmonica apps go further. Let's Bend, free and open source for Android, desktop and the web, draws blow bends, draw bends and overblows as you play them (version 3.8.0 on F-Droid, July 2026). The HOHNER Harmonica Tuner, software by Dirk's Projects made with Hohner, also sets the beating of tremolo reeds (BluesHarmonica.com, 2013). Harp tech Kinya Pollard of BluesHarmonica.com bench-tested Stonekick's Pitched tuner (Tuner-Pitched on iOS, Pitched Tuner on Android) in 2020 and recommends it set to 442. A clip-on reads vibration through what it is clipped to and has nowhere to go on a harmonica held in two hands: use a tuner with a microphone, or a phone.

Why some reeds read off on purpose

Many diatonics are not tuned to strict equal temperament. To make the blow chord ring, a typical chart sets the third lower, the E's on blow 2, 5 and 8 of a C harp, anywhere from 0 to 14 cents below equal temperament, and the fifths a little high, the G's on blow 3, 6 and 9 about 2 cents up, with blow 1, 4, 7 and 10 at zero (Yerxa). So a blow 2 reading 10 cents low may be the maker's choice. Every model has its own chart of these offsets; compare a reed against its chart, not against zero.

Do harmonicas need tuning, and can they go out of tune?

A harmonica comes tuned and there is nothing to turn before you play, as there is on a guitar. It does go out of tune, slowly. A reed that bends a lot fatigues and drifts flat, on a blues player's harp first the draw reeds of holes 2, 3 and 4. Dirt or dried saliva on a reed's tip adds weight and also pulls it flat. If one reed reads well off while its neighbours are fine, clean it first; if it still reads off, buzzes or stays silent, it wants work or the reed plate wants replacing.

How to tune a harmonica: filing the reeds

Take metal off near the free tip and the reed goes up; near the rivet, it goes down. Slip a thin shim under the reed to support it, file or scrape a few strokes across its width, play it soft and read it again: a few strokes move it a few cents, and it is easy to overshoot. Draw reeds sit on the outside of the lower reed plate and can be reached with the cover off; blow reeds sit inside the comb on the upper plate, so that plate comes off, unless you use one of the tuning tables or jigs made to reach them in place (Harmonica Einstein's tuning table and Andrew Zajac's French Tuner are two, as of 2026). Tremolo harmonicas have two reeds per note tuned a few cents apart on purpose: their beating is the sound, and a tuner with one needle can't set it (the HOHNER tuner above can). Octave harmonicas pair each reed with one an octave higher; tune each on its own.

Do chromatic harmonicas exist?

They do: a button at the side slides a bar that sends the air to a second set of reeds a semitone higher, so every note of every key is there. A 12-hole chromatic in C runs three octaves up from middle C, blow C E G C and draw D F A B in each octave. The chips on this page are for a diatonic; every reed of a chromatic reads on the chromatic tuner, set to 442 like the diatonic.

Draw notes and bends

To check the draw reeds, an overblow or how far a bend goes, play it on the chromatic tuner set to 442 and read the note and the cents. On a C harp the draw bends are 1 draw D down to C♯; 2 draw G down to F♯ and F; 3 draw B down to B♭, A and A♭; 4 draw D down to C♯; 6 draw A down to A♭; and the blow bends 8 E to E♭, 9 G to F♯, 10 C to B and B♭.

Which harmonica key for a song

Blues, rock and most country harmonica is played in second position, cross harp: the harp a fourth above the song's key, so the draw notes carry the tune. Folk melodies are often played in first position, on the harp in the song's own key. With a guitar, the harp goes in a neck rack, and the table picks it from the key the guitar plays in. Playing both takes a few weeks of practice, mostly for the guitar hand: start with a strum you can play without thinking and play the harp between sung lines. In the rack you move your head along the holes, not the harp.

Country songs are mostly in guitar keys, G, A, D and E, so in second position the C, D, G and A harps do most of the work. Many country players use a harp in country tuning: the 5 draw raised a semitone, F♯ instead of F on a C harp, which gives second position the major scale a country melody wants; Hohner and Seydel sell harps tuned that way (as of 2026). A 10-hole diatonic in C is the usual first harp, because most books and lessons are written for it, and many players teach themselves on it: a tuner checks what a teacher would, whether a bend reaches its note.

The notes you tuned go into Brumm as a short melody over a beat.