PlaysoloistWinds & FlutesHarmonicaSongsDanny Boy

harmonica song · Winds & Flutes

Danny Boy Harmonica Tab (Blow & Draw)

Composer
Traditional
Year
1913
Key
C
Time
Tempo
Difficulty
Intermediate · ★★★
First note
blow 4

Danny Boy on harmonica

The phrase Harmonica Studio’s lesson teaches — an excerpt of the melody, not the full-length arrangement — rendered as harmonica blow/draw tab you can read on screen or print for the stand, free.

Trad. Irish (Londonderry Air), words F. Weatherly 1913 — public domain. Melody is the traditional Irish air 'Londonderry Air' (public domain); teach/render the air only. F. Weatherly's 1913 lyric is also public domain (US pre-1929; life+70 expired 1999) but is not required for the melody lesson.

How to practise this on harmonica

Every number here is a hole and every arrow a breath: ▲ is a blow (exhale), ▼ is a draw (inhale). Danny Boy sits on a C harp and opens on blow 4. Move between holes by rocking your lips smoothly along the comb rather than jumping — the harp rewards small, clean shifts. Get a single note sounding clear (pucker or tongue-block) before you add any speed.

Where a bend is marked, lower the pitch with the back of your tongue and your jaw, not with more air; the app listens for whether the bend actually lands in tune. Play it at a comfortable tempo, breathing from the belly so long draws don't run you out of air, and loop the phrase that graded worst until the breath pattern feels automatic. By the numbers, this study runs 14 notes across holes 4 to 6.

Also playable on

The same melody is graded across 8 Playsoloist instruments. See every version, with difficulty and provenance, on the Danny Boy cross-instrument hub.

Keep exploring

Free on the App Store

Play Danny Boy — and hear every note graded.

Harmonica Studio reads this harmonica blow/draw tab under the notation and grades your take on-device, note by note — free on iPhone, no ads, no account.

Get Harmonica on the App Store