Gary Jugert’s Big Book of Harmonica
The main purpose of this website is to encourage you to make music on the harmonica melodically with other people and as a soloist. All sheet music posted is arranged for ensemble play with other musicians. It should also give you a more comprehensive view of how all music works and make it easier for you to tackle other instruments too.
Gary Jugert’s Big Book of Harmonica: I update the book regularly so don’t waste paper by printing it out. The Public Domain Version does not include modern songs under the haze of copyright protections. If you plan to do something fishy, please email me to let me know your plans.
- Your Official DAY ONE Book: PDF
- Ukulele chord chart: PDF
- Our Weekly Schedule
- Our Video Archive
- Big Book September 9, 2020: Public Domain Version: PDF
Recordings of All of Our Songs!
Try a few tunes on diatonic harmonica “by ear” without using sheet music. Try to guess what the next note is without writing anything down. Play the backing track in the MP3 player above and start on the hole listed after the name of the song: Mary Had a Little Lamb, London Bridge, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Michael Row Your Boat Ashore, This Old Man, and Three Blind Mice.
Need to slow these recordings down? Try these apps:
Individual Files from the Big Book:
Member songs are available to students attending our daily workshops or by email if I know you.
Diatonic Daily Warm-ups
- Kumbaya 4 PDF
- Ode to Joy 5 PDF
- Simple Gifts 6 PDF
- Shenandoah-ish 3 PDF
- You Are My Sunshine 3 PDF
- When the Saints Go Marching In 4 PDF
Diatonic
Resources:
Songs:
- All My Loving ~5 (email me for your copy)
- All Through the Night 7 PDF
- Aloha ‘Oe 6 PDF
- Amazing Grace 6 PDF
- Au Clair de la Lune 7 PDF
- Black is the Color of My True Loves Hair ~6 PDF
- Blowin’ in the Wind 6 (email me for your copy)
- Blow the Man Down 5 PDF
- Brahms’ Lullaby 5 PDF
- Buffalo Gals 6 PDF
- By the Light of the Silvery Moon 5 PDF
- Camptown Races 5 PDF
- Colorado Trail 5 PDF
- Edelweiss 5 (email me for your copy)
- For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow 4 PDF
- Ghost Riders in the Sky ~4 (email me for your copy)
- Hallelujah 4 (email me for your copy)
- Happy Birthday 6 PDF
- Home on the Range 6 PDF
- La Cucaracha 3 or 6 PDF
- Love Me Tender 6 (email me for your copy)
- Mister Bojangles 3 (email me for your copy)
- Moon River 6 (email me for your copy)
- Morning Has Broken 4 PDF
- My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean 6 PDF
- On Top of Spaghetti 4 PDF
- Puff the Magic Dragon 7 (email me for your copy)
- Soft Kitty 6 (email me for your copy)
- Streets of Laredo 6 PDF
- Taps 6 PDF
- Tenting Tonight 6 PDF
- Tom Dooley 6 PDF
- Try to Remember 8 (email me for your copy)
- Wildwood Flower 5 PDF
- Yankee Doodle 7 PDF
***
Chromatic
Resources:
Songs:
- As Time Goes By ~4 (email me for your copy)
- Ash Grove 3 PDF
- Ashokan Farewell ~5 (email me for your copy)
- A Whole New World ~6* (email me for your copy)
- Beautiful Dreamer ~5 PDF
- Blue Moon 7 (email me for your copy)
- Come Josephine in My Flying Machine 3 or 7 PDF
- Daisy Bell 9 PDF
- Danny Boy ~2* PDF
- Fly Me to the Moon 4 or 8 (email me for your copy)
- Girl from Ipanema 6 (email me for your copy)
- Hedwig’s Theme 2 (email me for your copy)
- House of the Rising Sun ~3 PDF
- It’s Only a Paper Moon 3 (email me for your copy)
- La Vie En Rose 8 (email me for your copy)
- Last Rose of Summer 5 PDF
- Leaving on a Jet Plane 5 (email me for your copy)
- Minstrel Boy 3 PDF
- Over the Rainbow 5 (email me for your copy)
- Scarborough Fair ~3 PDF
- Smile 5 (email me for your copy)
- Smoke Gets in Your Eyes 4 (email me for your copy)
- Summertime 6 (email me for your copy)
- This Little Light of Mine 3 PDF
- Tomorrow 3 (email me for your copy)
- Wonderful World 3 (email me for your copy)
***
Holiday Tunes
Christmas Diatonic
- Adeste Fidelis ~9 PDF
- Auld Lang Syne ~10 PDF
- El Noi de la Mare 5 PDF
- First Noel 5 PDF
- Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas 4 (email me for your copy)
- Over the River and Through the Woods PDF
- Silent Night 7 PDF
- We Wish You a Merry Christmas 6 PDF
Christmas Chromatic
- I’ll Be Home for Christmas 5 (email me for your copy)
- In the Bleak Midwinter ~3 or ~7 PDF
- It Came Upon a Midnight Clear 3 PDF
- O Holy Night 2 PDF
- Silver Bells 4 (email me for your copy)
- White Christmas 6 (email me for your copy)
Diatonic Easter
- Peter Cottontail 6 (email me for your copy)
***
Theory & Standard Notation
Send me an email for the answer sheets
- Drunken Sailor PDF
- Frère Jacques PDF
- Go Tell Aunt Rhody PDF
- My Spaghetti Monster PDF
- Merrily We Roll Along PDF
Big Book of the Future
Which ones you wanna do first? Requests: Ain’t No Mountain High Enough, Ain’t No Sunshine, Annie’s Song, At Last, Blowing in the Wind, Both Sides Now, Can’t Help Falling in Love, Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You, Can You Feel the Love Tonight, Close to You, Follow You Follow Me, I Will Always Love You, My Girl, We’ve Only Just Begun, Without You.
Harmonica Stories
Ethnic stereotypes aside, Hohner felt harmonicas were for everybody. (What the heck is going on with the Navy dude?!)
Read more about harmonica history in the Smithsonian: Industrial Espionage and Cutthroat Competition Fueled the Rise of the Humble Harmonica LINK
- First instrument played in space: Jingle Bells on a Hohner Little Lady harmonica by Wally Schirra
- Listen to some sheng ensemble music (the great grandfather of the harmonica) HERE
What do the Yankees baseball team and the history of harmonica share? “Harmonica Incident” LINK
Oldtime Central’s article on the early days of the harmonica is HERE.
Some Silly Stuff
LeBron James plays harmonica not as good as you.
Lanny and Deb had a gecko sneak into their house and hide behind the printer. When Deb plays harmonica the gecko comes out to listen. She’s the pied piper of harmonica. If being a musician doesn’t work out, she could go into the lizard wrangling business.
