Hohner Harmonicas

10 Good Reasons to Play Hohner Harmonicas

 

Diatonic Models

These diatonic harmonicas, built according to the Richter-system, are in principle single tone instruments and can be recognized by their undivided air channels. They are usually simply called “Blues Harps" and are very convenient as melody instruments for blues, rock, country and folk. The fact that they are single note instruments allows bending and over-blowing of certain notes in order to create the typical, howling blues sound as well as the missing chromatic notes.

Chromatic Models

Chromatic harmonicas enable the player to perform music of all keys on one instrument. At present they consist of two diatonic harmonicas in one, tuned a semitone apart - for example in C and C#. The slide button is pushed in to switch the airflow from one to the other, thus raising the pitch of each note by a semitone.
By combining these two scales, all 12 notes of the chromatic scale are available (some of them twice). This offers a wealth of new musical options to the player. Most commonly chromatic harmonicas are heard within the classical music and jazz scene, but often these harmonicas are used for blues, folk music, rock and pop, too.

Tremolo Models

Tremolo-tuned harmonicas are mainly used for folk music. They are easily recognizable by the horizontal division of the air channels. Each channel has two reeds for each note, one pair for blown notes and another pair for drawn ones.
These reeds – which are basically identical – are tuned to slightly different frequencies. When played together, this difference causes the characteristic beating of the tremolo sound!

Octave Models

Besides the tremolo harmonicas the octave tuned instruments are the most popular instruments for traditional and folk music. They are easily recognisable by the air channels which are divided horizontally and their characteristically curved banana-like shape.
Each note is produced by a pair of reeds, tuned exactly one octave apart, which produces a strong and full sound.