Harmonica Music

Free Harmonica Music

The free harmonica music tracks on this page may surprise you… If you’ve never heard harmonica before, this is a good place to start.

Just press the play buttons…

This set of Irish reels has three tunes: Drowsy Maggie, The Merry Blacksmith and Crowley’s Reel. It come from my CD Black Mountain Harmonica recorded at the studio of my brother Quentin Eyers.

This tune is George Brabazon’s Second Air, by the Irish composer Turlough O’Carolan, also from my Black Mountain Harmonica CD. The tune plays twice, the second time I overdub a harmony track. This track is very popular with the members of my Chinese harmonica site.

This track is called Jump Up, written by Dave Hellens from my band The Lawnmowers. A change of pace from the previous track… For those interested, I’m playing in 3rd position. 3rd position is often used for blues, I use it for minor tunes as well. For those interested in this harmonica style, check out the lessons at Harmonica Academy.

And free bluegrass harmonica music

A key feature of my harmonica music is traditional bluegrass fiddle tunes. My aim is to play accurate “note for note” versions of these tunes. Bluegrass fiddle tunes are usually swift (not always so with bluegrass songs), however the music should not sound rushed, and be error free . The two tracks below demonstrate my approach to this music.

This is Billy in the Lowground, from my Black Mountain Harmonica CD. This track is also on the album Pace Yourself, by the great US harmonica player PT Gazell. In fact I arranged my version so that it went at the same speed as PTs, perhaps inspired by his album title. The guitar and mandolin are played by my good friendJohn Bridgland.

Whiskey Before Breakfast (hopefully not!), from my Black Mountain Harmonica CD. Notice the harmony track on the final verse.

Then baroque…

A complete change of pace. I also play baroque recorder, with my band Balmain Baroque. Here we play the first movement from the Handel recorder sonata in C, with Nigel Ubrihien on harpsichord and Emily Palethorpe on cello. For those wondering where my double tracked harmonies come from, this may explain it.