For Starters

• Diatonic harmonica
  has ten holes, no button, fits in the palm of your hand, come in twelve keys, great for blues, pop, rock, country & western or even bluesgrass. Bob Dylan, Neil Young, John Popper from Blues Traveller, Sugar Blue, Magic Dick from Canned Heat, Charlie Musselwhite, Little Walter, Walter Horton, Charlie McCoy, and countless other musicians play diatonic harmonica.
  When people are talking about harp or harmonica this is usually what they are talking about. They are also known as Blues Harp, Short Harp, Missippi Saxophone and many more names.
• Slide harmonica
  Slide harmonicas are the larger family of harmonicas that incorporate a slide to select different notes, usually the button for it is to the right of the mouthpiece, they have two sets of reedplates which the slide selects between for the different notes, the instrument is bigger than most diatonic harmonicas because of the extra reedplate and the mouthpiece & comb design. The chromatic harmonica is a form of slide harmonica. Some chord harmonicas with slide(s) to select chords are another form of slide harmonica.
  However there are Richter Layout 10 hole slide harmonicas laid out like a regular blues diatonic harmonica. The slide effectively gives you a second diatonic harmonica a semitone higher. Strictly speaking not a chromatic harmonica, although these models have almost all the notes available. These are generally referred to as slide harmonicas and are usually what is meant when people refer to the term even though chord harmonicas and chromatic harmonicas are also in the slide harmonica family.
• Chromatic harmonica
  This is what Harp On! Chromatic Harmonica Reference has primarily been written for.
  They are a family of slide harmonicas designed to play in any key. They come in 8, 10, 12, 14 or 16 hole sizes. Stock chromatic harmonicas almost always come with "Solo" layout which is covered later in this site.
  Another name for chromatic harmonica is the word "chrom". Chromatic harmonicas or chrom's are popular for classical and jazz music, but not limited to those styles.
• Double reed harmonica
  Double reed harmonicas are either Tremolo or Octave.
  Tremolo harmonicas are popular in Asia and in folk music. Each note has a tremolo effect because there are two reeds playing slightly different notes.
  Both types come in a number of keys, but also can be bought in pairs (eg. C major and C# major) as they can be played together as a chromatic harmonica by continually swapping between the two harps.
  The octave harmonica is very similar to the tremolo harmonica except the two reeds are tuned an octave apart giving a full voice.
  

  Here are links to sites that discuss these instruments:
  Coast 2 Coast
  Richard Hunter's site by Ted van Beek
  

• Bass harmonica
  These are all blow harmonicas that are big and heavy and they play very low notes, usually played as a back up instrument for orchestral or ensemble music. They are a chromatic instrument as they have all the notes, but typically called a bass harp. Look under Orchestral Harmonicas for more information.
• Chord harmonica
  These instruments vary in size and shape, they are used for playing chords, some are HUGE harmonicas (measured in feet), some look like strange chromatic harmonicas with one or two buttons. Like Bass Harmonicas they are usually played as a back up instrument for orchestral or ensemble music. They are a form of chromatic instrument as they have all the notes, but typically called a chord harmonica. Look under Orchestral Harmonicas for more information.

So!? Which one?
First a question for you:
"What style(s) of music do your prefer or want to learn on the harmonica?"
If your preferences are amongst Blues, Rock, RnB, some Pop, Folk music, Country & Western then I highly recommend purchasing a diatonic harmonica and exploring the vast resources available for the instrument, such as Diatonic Harmonica Reference which will answer just about any question you have.
Then again if you are more inclined towards Classical, Jazz (in its many forms), Ballads, Vaudeville, and Standards then I would say the chromatic harmonica is a good starting point for you.

Chord or Bass harmonicas I would recommend only to those who have found a teacher for these instruments and have an ensemble they can take part in.

Tremolo harmonica are very popular in Folk music like Asian, Scottish, Irish and Québecois. For a beginner they can be a lot of fun to play around on. Asian's also use Octave harmonicas in their music.

These are my opinions and not the be all and end all, you may feel differently or have other ideas and recommendations, I wholeheartedly encourage you to think independantly about your choice. Perhaps you play Irish and find a slide harmonica is better suited to your needs, perhaps as a Jazz standard player you can get away with using altered layout diatonics, but for a beginner its a complicated enough decision as it is.

A final word: If you are in doubt, buy a diatonic harmonica (since they are the cheapest harmonica) and have some fun, later maybe you'll decide what type of harmonica will better suit your tastes & needs.

What I wish I knew when I wanted my first Chromatic Harmonica.

Having decided to learn CHROMATIC harmonica, here are some tips,

Chromatic means "adj.1. of colour; 2. Music. of scale proceeding by semitones". Chromatic harmonicas are designed to be able to play every tone found in every octave similar to a piano.

There are 12 chromatic tones in an octave. Generally a diatonic key you play guides you as to which of those twelve tones you can play in a song.

Chrom Harp is another name for Chromatic Harmonica. The Chromonica and also the Chrometta are Hohner models of chromatic harmonicas.

There are several different types of chromatic harmonicas, but the most common have 12 holes or 16 holes and a slide button which raises the pitch of any hole by a semi-tone.

Chromatics usually come in key of C. But for some makes and models you can get them in other keys too. The difference here is which holes play which notes. They still have all 12 tones per octave.

On a typical chrom you can play 4 tones on one hole with the help of the slide. A 12 hole chrom has 48 tones. A 16 hole chrom has 64 tones. This is because for each octave the beginning blow note is the same as the end blow note, and there are two lots of enharmonics or tones that are for all intents and purposes the same.

For diatonic short harp owners: a chrom's note layout (with the slide out) is the same as holes 4 to 7 repeated every four holes side by side. The slide makes the harp play a semitone higher.

The above is true except: Sometimes the very last hole draw, slide in is a semitone higher than blow, slide in. This is to give a bit of extra range.

You can bend notes on the chromatic harmonica, in fact you can bend all of them. The difference is they are valved bends and have a different quality or timbre than a standard diatonic harmonica bent note.

There are a number of good books & education kits on learning how to play and look after the chromatic harmonica.

10 hole slide harmonicas are not neccessarily the same as normal chromatic harmonicas. The Koch and the Hohner Slide Harmonica are both different from regular chromatic harmonicas because they have the same note layout as regular diatonic harmonicas. The Hohner Chromonica 260 and Chrometta 10 are both 10 hole chromatic harmonicas and only different in that they have a 2 1/2 octave range. Check this out before handing over your money. Most shops will not accept a harmonica back after it has been used.

Even the best chromatic harps need a little maintenance and cleaning occasionally, because they have moving parts. This means you will need to pull the harp apart occasionally. This is a necessary part of owning a chromatic harp.

Chromatic Harmonicas have windsavers or valves which are used to save breath and quiet the reed opposite the one you are playing.  They are usually made up of two white strips of plastic, one soft, with a shorter stiff strip holding it against the reed plate. They are very useful for helping create clean notes and saving your breath.

Valves can wear out or get damaged. You can tell when you start hearing buzzing while playing. Or if you play a hole and the note is slightly muffled until you feel something give, and the note comes out cleanly, known as "popping". Another symptom is getting an irritating metalic ringing when playing a note. All of these symptoms will require you to take your chrom apart, even partially. With a little practise and care this is not hard and all the above symptoms can be fixed.

You will eventually need replacement windsavers. You can get replacement valves from Hohner but they don't accept credit card. It is possible to make your own valves.

Chroms with wood combs are harder to maintain and clean that chrom harps with plastic or metal combs.

Chrom models are either straight tuned or cross tuned. Look through the mouthpiece with the slide out. If the top of all the holes are open its straight tuned. If the exposed part of the holes alternate top & bottom its cross tuned.
Cross tuned chroms were designed to make it easier for beginners to play lower bass notes. They also arguably allow more air get to the reeds allowing better volume. Some argue that cross tuning creates more airleakage by design. But these are contentious points at best.
The only sure thing is a straight tuned chrom slide has a shorter distance to travel than a cross tuned chrom slide and physics says the less distance to travel the less energy required to get to your destination.

Breath control; Embouchure; how you hold the harp; and cupping is all important to playing chrom harp well.

The difficulty of any playing technique or musical run has absolutely no relevence to its effectiveness in a musical context, but the more techniques you learn the more flexibility you will have at any given moment as a musician.

Don't apply machine oil, WD40, CRC oil, instrument slide lubricant or any machine lube into the mouthpiece or slide, they are poison and make their way into your mouth, tongue & skin. Food oils and CRC 808 food grade silicon spray go rancid after a while. If you must lubricate the only safe suggested lubricant is a minute even layer of paraffin liquid or the colourless/tasteless variety of chapstick. There are a couple of tasteless, colourless non-toxic lubricants on the market such as teflon liquid, but in the end no matter HOW LITTLE is used any of these lubricants migrate to the reeds and windsavers causing response problems, collect dust and muck, allow bacterial grow or go off.. Generally people who use safe lubricants for a while usually realise that water is THE BEST lubricant for chromatic harmonicas.
If the slide is sticking regularly you need to clean the mouthpiece and slide. Quickly dipping just the mouthpiece in water, can help to free the slide up. Alternatively with most harmonica models you can dip the button in water and tip the harmonica button pointing up leaning the mouthpiece holes slightly down and work the slide as the water works its way down the slide. If you use force to free a sticky slide you can easily wreck it.

Don't eat and drink beverages when playing a chrom harp. It will mean you have to clean and fix your harp more often. Cleaning your teeth before playing is recommended too.

Playing harp gets easier the more you practise. PRACTISE MAKES PERFECT!

Inspiration for Haromonica Musicians

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