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!
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
- Monday: Kumbaya 4 PDF
- Tuesday: Ode to Joy 5 PDF
- Wednesday: Simple Gifts 6 PDF
- Thursday: Shenandoah-ish 3 PDF
- Friday: You Are My Sunshine 3 PDF
- Saturday: When the Saints Go Marching In 4 PDF
- Sunday: On Top of Spaghetti 4 PDF
Diatonic
Resources:
Songs:
- All My Loving ~5 (via email)
- 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 (via email)
- 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
- Down in the Valley 6 PDF
- Edelweiss 5 (via email)
- For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow 4 PDF
- Ghost Riders in the Sky ~4 (via email)
- Hallelujah 4 (via email)
- Happy Birthday 6 PDF
- Home on the Range 6 PDF
- La Cucaracha 3 or 6 PDF
- Love Me Tender 6 (via email)
- Mister Bojangles 3 (via email)
- Moon River 6 (via email)
- Morning Has Broken 4 PDF
- My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean 6 PDF
- Pop Goes the Weasel ~2 PDF
- Puff the Magic Dragon 7 (via email)
- Red Red Wine 6 (via email)
- Soft Kitty 6 (via email)
- Streets of Laredo 6 PDF
- Taps 6 PDF
- Tenting Tonight 6 PDF
- Tom Dooley 6 PDF
- Try to Remember 8 (via email)
- Wildwood Flower 5 PDF
- Yankee Doodle 7 PDF
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Chromatic
Resources:
Songs:
- America the Beautiful 3 PDF
- As Time Goes By ~4 (via email)
- Ash Grove 3 PDF
- Ashokan Farewell ~5 (via email)
- A Whole New World ~6* (via email)
- Beautiful Dreamer ~5 PDF
- Blue Moon 7 (via email)
- Come Josephine in My Flying Machine 3 or 7 PDF
- Daisy Bell 9 PDF
- Danny Boy ~2* PDF
- Do Re Mi 3 (via email)
- Fly Me to the Moon 4 or 8 (via email)
- Ghost Riders in the Sky 2 (via email)
- Girl from Ipanema 6 (via email)
- Hedwig’s Theme 2 (via email)
- House of the Rising Sun ~3 PDF
- It’s Only a Paper Moon 3 (via email)
- La Vie En Rose 8 (via email)
- Last Rose of Summer 5 PDF
- Leaving on a Jet Plane 5 (via email)
- Minstrel Boy 3 PDF
- Over the Rainbow 5 (via email)
- Parting Glass PDF
- Scarborough Fair ~3 PDF
- Smile 5 (via email)
- Smoke Gets in Your Eyes 4 (via email)
- Summertime 6 (via email)
- This Little Light of Mine 3 PDF
- Tomorrow 3 (via email)
- Unchained Melody 5 (via email)
- Water is Wide 3 PDF
- Wonderful World 3 (via email)
***
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 (via email)
- 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 (via email)
- In the Bleak Midwinter ~3 or ~7 PDF
- It Came Upon a Midnight Clear 3 PDF
- O Holy Night 2 PDF
- Silver Bells 4 (via email)
- White Christmas 6 (via email)
Diatonic Easter
- Peter Cottontail 6 (via email)
***
Ear Training for Harmonica
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 8
- London Bridges
- Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
- Michael Row Your Boat Ashore
- This Old Man
- Three Blind Mice
Theory & Standard Notation for Harmonica
- Resource: Diatonic Notes in C PDF
- Resource: Chromatic Notes in C PDF
- Resource: Chromatic Scales PDF
- Tab Your Own: Drunken Sailor PDF Answer Sheet (no peeking!) PDF
- Tab Your Own: Frère Jacques PDF Answer Sheet (no peeking!) PDF
- Tab Your Own: Go Tell Aunt Rhody PDF Answer Sheet (no peeking!) PDF
- Tab Your Own: Merrily We Roll Along PDF Answer Sheet (no peeking!) PDF
- Tab Your Own: My Spaghetti Monster PDF Answer Sheet (no peeking!) 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.
