Harmonica Chord Cheat Sheet

Lesson Length: 3:27
Instructor: George Goodman

So now we are back in first position and in this session looking at the I Major 7 chord. This is the chord built on the first note of the major scale and happens to be a major 7 chord.
Learn where each of the chord tones land on the mouth organ for this very important chord.

Harmonica Cheat Sheets pdf

Hohner Special 20 in C
In this lesson, as in most of the lessons, I am playing a Hohner Special 20 in the key of C.

I Major 7 Harmonica Tabs

In this session we are looking at the Harmonica Chord Cheat Sheet and in particular the I Major 7 chord.
Where do the notes that make up the IM7 chord land over the full range of the diatonic harmonica?

Looking at the Harmonica Chord Cheat Sheet we see that the harmonica tabs are divided into 4 columns.
7th chords are made up of four notes with each note in the chord represented by a particular column.
The first column shows the root of the chord.
The second column displays the third of the chord.
The third column shows the fifth of the chord and the fourth column is the seventh of the chord.

The first row of tabs for the IM7 chord starts with the root note blow 1.
The third of the chord is blow 2.
The fifth is blow 3 and the major 7th is at draw 3.
1 2 3 -3

If you were looking to sound the notes of the major triad and not looking for the major 7, you would only need blow 1, 2, 3.
The tabs for the I Major 7 chord in the next octave is
4 5 6 -7
Again if you only need the major triad, use blow 4, 5, 6.

Finally, in the top octave of the mouth harp, the tabs for the I Major 7 chord are
7 8 9 10b.

Controlling a half bend on blow 10 is very difficult if not impossible depending on the key harmonica. I have a heck of a time consistently bending blow 10 so don't get discouraged here.

The tabs for the full range of the diatonic harmonica are:
1 2 3 -3
4 5 6 -7
7 8 9
10

Wrap Up

The Harmonica Chord Cheat Sheet displays the tabs that make up the seventh chords built upon each degree of the major scale.
Seventh chords are four note chords consisting of a root, third, fifth and seventh.
Each of these notes are displayed in columns in the chart.
The root is the first column, the 3rd is the second column, the 5th is in the third column and the 7th is in the fourth column.

The tabs for the I Major 7 chord over the full range of the mouth harp are as follows:
1 2 3 -3
4 5 6 -7
7 8 9
10