The reasons for this are quite complex and relate both to the greater mass of the lower tuned reeds and to some complicated physics theory involving resonance, which is somewhat beyond the scope of this article! Just be aware, though, that you’re unlikely to be able to do the same sort of bending on a Low Low F harp as you can easily achieve on one tuned to standard C.

It’s worth noting that the lower the pitch of the harmonica, the harder it is to bend notes effectively. So, in order of pitch, from highest to lowest, the keys look like this: Low F#, Low F, Low Eb, Low D, Low Db, Low C, Low B, Low Bb, Low A, Low Ab, Low G, Low Low F. This explains, perhaps, why Low Low F, which is a further octave lower in pitch, is available in many low tuned harmonicas. The low keys start with Low F#, which, given that F# is close to the highest standard tuning, and Low F# is an octave below this, means that it’s not strikingly low in pitch, being around half an octave lower than standard C. High G is the only high key typically encountered, and this occupies a slightly squeaky place one semitone above standard F#. Now we know the relative pitches of the standard keys, we can examine the high and low keys that fit on the extremities. Taking C as our starting point, we can then visualise the relative positions of all of the standard keys: Db, D, Eb, E, F and F# are all higher than C (ie, with their lowest note to the right of middle C on a piano keyboard), whilst G, Ab, A, Bb and B are all lower than C (ie to the left of middle C on a piano keyboard). It’s interesting to note that C7 is considerably above the upper range of a soprano, so we’re talking about a fairly high note here!

The 10th hole blow note will also be a C, but it will be 3 octaves higher, making it a C7. To put this into a more easily visualised context, C4 is also known as middle C, and is found very close to the middle of most piano keyboards. Let’s look first at a 10 hole Richter-tuned diatonic in C. Questions like ‘is a G harp lower than a C harp?’ or what’s a “Low Low F?’ crop up with surprising regularity in my job, so perhaps it’s time to look at the key naming conventions and try to achieve some clarity. We’ve examined keys, tunings and playing positions in previous posts, but it recently occurred to me that some players, especially beginners, can be confused by specific pitch designations when buying a harmonica.

Harmonica Tunings Explained – Low Tunings and Range Harmonica Tunings Explained – Low Tunings and Range

Harpninja vs harmonica tunner