Gary Jugert’s Big Book of Harmonica

Click HERE for our weekday class schedule and music and HERE for our video archive.

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.

• Is this your first week here? You should start with these: PDF
• Published September 9, 2020: Public Domain Version: PDF
• Need a chart for the ukulele chords in the music we play? HERE ya go.
• Published: The Complete Version for students only.

 

 

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:

• TempoSlowMo for iPhones
• TempoSlowMo for Androids
• Audacity for Computer

Video archives are HERE

 

 

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

Diatonic

Resources:

• Diatonic Notes in C PDF
• Practice Log PDF

Songs:

1. All My Loving ~5 (members)
2. All Through the Night 7 PDF
3. Aloha ‘Oe 6 PDF
4. Amazing Grace 6 PDF
5. Au Clair de la Lune 7 PDF
6. Black is the Color of My True Loves Hair ~6 PDF
7. Blowin’ in the Wind 6 (members)
8. Blow the Man Down 5 PDF
9. Brahms’ Lullaby 5 PDF
10. Buffalo Gals 6 PDF
11. By the Light of the Silvery Moon 5 PDF
12. Camptown Races 5 PDF
13. Colorado Trail 5 PDF
14. Edelweiss 5 (members)
15. For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow 4 PDF
16. Ghost Riders in the Sky ~4 (members)
17. Hallelujah 4 (members)
18. Happy Birthday 6 PDF
    
19. Home on the Range 6 PDF
20. La Cucaracha 3 or 6 PDF
21. Love Me Tender 6 (members)
22. Mister Bojangles 3 (members)
23. Moon River 6 (members)
24. Morning Has Broken 4 PDF
25. My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean 6 PDF
26. On Top of Spaghetti 4 PDF
27. Puff the Magic Dragon 7 (members)
28. Soft Kitty 6 (members)
29. Streets of Laredo 6 PDF
30. Taps 6 PDF
31. Tenting Tonight 6 PDF
32. Tom Dooley 6 PDF
33. Try to Remember 8 (members)
34. When the Saints Go Marching In 4 PDF
35. Wildwood Flower 5 PDF 
36. Yankee Doodle 7 PDF

***

Chromatic

Resources:

• Chromatic Scales (so far) PDF
• Chromatic Notes in C PDF
• Practice Log PDF

Songs:

1. As Time Goes By ~4 (members)
2. Ash Grove 3 PDF
3. Ashokan Farewell ~5 (members)
4. Beautiful Dreamer ~5 PDF
5. Blue Moon 7 (members)
6. Come Josephine in My Flying Machine 3 or 7 PDF
7. Daisy Bell 9 PDF
8. Danny Boy ~2* PDF
9. Fly Me to the Moon 4 or 8 (members)
10. Girl from Ipanema 6 (members)
11. Hedwig’s Theme 2 (members)
12. House of the Rising Sun ~3 PDF
13. It’s Only a Paper Moon 3 (members)
14. La Vie En Rose 8 (members)
15. Last Rose of Summer 5 PDF
16. Leaving on a Jet Plane 5 (members)
17. Minstrel Boy 3 PDF
    
18. Over the Rainbow 5 (members)
19. Scarborough Fair ~3 PDF
20. Smile 5 (members)
21. Smoke Gets in Your Eyes 4 (members)
22. Summertime 6 (members)
23. This Little Light of Mine 3 PDF
24. Wonderful World 3 (members)

***

Holiday Tunes

Christmas Diatonic

1. Adeste Fidelis ~9 PDF
2. Auld Lang Syne ~10 PDF
3. El Noi de la Mare 5 PDF
4. First Noel 5 PDF
5. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas 4 (members)
6. O Holy Night 5 PDF
7. Over the River and Through the Woods PDF
8. Silent Night 7 PDF
9. We Wish You a Merry Christmas 6 PDF

Christmas Chromatic

1. I’ll Be Home for Christmas 5 (members)
2. In the Bleak Midwinter ~3 or ~7 PDF
3. It Came Upon a Midnight Clear 3 PDF
4. O Holy Night 2 PDF
5. Silver Bells 4 (members)
6. White Christmas 6 (members)

Diatonic Easter

1. Peter Cottontail 6 (members)

***

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.