Jaw harp: how to play, number tabs and easy songs
A jaw harp (also called a Jew’s harp or mouth harp) is a small metal frame with one reed. The reed always sounds the same note; you change the tune by shaping your mouth, which picks out one of its overtones, so a jaw harp tab is a rhythm and a number from 1 to 16.
Play on the screen, or on your real jaw harp: Plonk listens through your microphone.
How do jaw harp tabs work?
Pluck the reed with a finger and hold the frame lightly against your teeth, a little apart so the reed can swing. The number is the overtone to bring out: 1 is the reed’s own note and each higher number is a higher note you find by changing the shape of your mouth, as if you were saying different vowels.
Plonk draws a slider with sixteen overtones, four octaves above the reed: slide along it and the mouth’s resonance follows your finger. The overtone that lights up is the one to play, in time with the falling notes.
Easy jaw harp songs to start with
Jaw harp songs with tabs
- Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
- Hot Cross Buns
- Au clair de la lune
- Mary Had a Little Lamb
- Ode to Joy
- Happy Birthday to You
- Frère Jacques
- Silent Night
- Jingle Bells
- Amazing Grace
- Reed Dance
- Twang Beat
- Row, Row, Row Your Boat
- Canon, the opening theme
- Rain on the Roof
- Music Box Waltz
- Kazoo Parade
- London Bridge Is Falling Down
- Joy to the World
- Dusty Trail
- Noon Showdown
- Campfire Boing
- Oh! Susanna
- Red River Valley
- Home on the Range
Questions
- Is the jaw harp hard to learn?
- Making a clear sound takes a few tries, and finding the overtones takes longer. Start with songs that use only two or three numbers; the original jaw harp songs on Plonk are written that way.
- What note does a jaw harp play?
- Each jaw harp has one fixed note, printed or marked on it. Plonk’s uses G2 as that note, and the tab numbers are its overtones.