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50 free The Harmonica trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
The harmonica is the only instrument that fits in a shirt pocket, was carried by Abraham Lincoln, and became the first musical instrument ever played in space. This harmonica trivia quiz covers how the little free-reed box actually works (combs, reed plates, wind-savers, bending and overblowing), where it came from (Vienna, Trossingen and a clockmaker named Hohner), and the players who made it sing: Little Walter and the Chicago blues, Larry Adler in the concert hall, Toots Thielemans in jazz, and Stevie Wonder and Bob Dylan in pop. You will find easy warm-ups, a solid middle of chromatic-versus-diatonic detail, and a few expert questions for anyone who knows their positions from their pitch pipes. Every answer is verified and cited to its reference page. If you like this quiz, try our other musical-instrument and blues quizzes.
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Q 01By what other name is the harmonica commonly known?
Mouth organ
It is also called a French harp, and in blues circles a 'harp' or 'Mississippi saxophone'.
Q 02How is the harmonica classified?
As a free reed aerophone
Its relatives include the accordion, the melodica and the ancient Chinese sheng.
Q 03How many holes does the standard blues harp have?
Ten
The diatonic Richter-tuned instrument has ten air passages and twenty reeds, one blow and one draw per hole.
Q 04How many reeds does a standard ten-hole diatonic harmonica contain?
Twenty
Each chamber holds a blow reed and a draw reed, playable separately without needing valves.
Q 05What is a harmonica reed typically made of?
Brass
Stainless steel and bronze are also used; the flat spring is fixed at one end over a slot and vibrates to block and unblock the airway.
Q 06Which kind of reed produces the lower pitch?
Longer, heavier or more flexible
Tuning is done by changing a reed's length, adding weight near its free end, or altering stiffness near the fixed end.
Q 07What is the technique of lowering a note's pitch by adjusting the embouchure called?
Bending
The term may be borrowed from guitarists, and it creates the wailing glissandos of blues harp.
Q 08What is the main body of a harmonica called?
The comb
The name may come from its resemblance to a hair comb; wood was traditional but plastic and even titanium are now used.
Q 09What are the one-way valves found in chromatic harmonicas called?
Wind-savers
Thin strips of plastic, leather or Teflon stop air leaking through the reed that is not being played.
Q 10How does a chromatic harmonica access the sharps and flats?
A button-activated sliding bar
The slide redirects air to a second reed plate, letting one 12-, 14- or 16-hole instrument play in any key.
Q 11What gives the wavering type of harmonica its warbling sound?
Two reeds per note, slightly out of tune
The beat between the two out-of-tune reeds creates the warble; the East Asian version can play all 12 semitones.
Q 12How many chords can a full chord harmonica play?
Up to 48
Major, seventh, minor, augmented and diminished chords are laid out in four-note clusters for ensemble playing.
Q 13What is the simple specialty harmonica that gives singers a reference note called?
Pitch pipe
Some early ones differed from harmonicas only in name; versions for guitarists sound the open strings.
Q 21In which German town did the world's biggest harmonica maker begin?
Trossingen
Rival factories in Trossingen and Klingenthal drove the invention of machines to punch reed covers.
Q 22When was the first chromatic harmonica made?
1924
The bass and chord harmonicas followed; the diatonic had largely reached its modern form by the 1920s.
Q 23What is the model name of the classic German-made 20-reed harmonica introduced in 1896?
Marine Band
Its official designation is the 1896/20; Dylan, Lennon, Springsteen and Little Walter all played one.
Which US president carried a harmonica in his pocket?
Q 14Who developed the overblow and overdraw technique in the 1970s?
Howard Levy
Combined with ordinary bending, it lets a diatonic harmonica play the full chromatic scale.
Q 15What is the blues players' slang for second position?
Cross harp
First position is 'straight' and third is 'slant'; cross harp puts the root on the second draw for a bluesy dominant-seventh sound.
Q 16Which ancient Chinese free-reed instrument was a forerunner of the harmonica?
Sheng
The French Jesuit Jean Joseph Marie Amiot, who lived in Qing China, helped make free reeds known in Europe.
Q 17Who is often cited as the inventor of the harmonica, in 1821?
Christian Friedrich Ludwig Buschmann
Others were building similar instruments at the same time; Wheatstone's 1829 'Aeolina' was one.
Q 18In which city did the harmonica first appear, with chambered models sold before 1824?
Vienna
A German violin maker bought one at an exhibition in 1824 and was turning out hundreds of copies by 1827.
Q 19Which 1826 note layout became almost universal on diatonic harmonicas?
Richter
Its inventor is also credited with the blow-and-draw mechanism.
Q 20What was Matthias Hohner's trade before he started making harmonicas in 1857?
Clockmaker
He and his wife and one employee made 650 in the first year; he became the first to mass-produce them.
Abraham Lincoln
The instrument comforted soldiers on both sides of the Civil War, and Wyatt Earp and Billy the Kid played it too.
Q 25How many harmonicas decorated the 1925 White House Christmas tree?
Fifty
The publicity helped the Hohner Harmony Hour radio programme, which taught listeners to play along.
Q 26Which Danish-American perfected the moulded plastic harmonica during World War II?
Finn Magnus
His reeds and reed plates were moulded from a single piece of plastic; the plastic-comb patent went to William Kratt in 1952.
Q 27Which Japanese firm manufactures the popular Lee Oskar harmonicas?
Tombo
Yamaha also made harmonicas until the 1970s; Seydel is the only survivor of the three firms operating in Trossingen by 1855.
Q 28Which microphone, sold for taxi dispatchers, gave Little Walter his punchy amplified tone?
The Bullet
Cupping his hands around it created a distorted, sax-like sound, hence the nickname 'Mississippi saxophone'.
Q 29What unique distinction does Little Walter's 1952 hit 'Juke' hold?
Only harmonica instrumental to reach No. 1 on Billboard R&B
It spent eight weeks at number one in 1952; the working title had been 'Your Cat Will Play'.
Q 30Little Walter is the only artist inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame specifically as what?
A harmonica player
He was inducted in 2008, four decades after his death; his playing drew comparisons to Charlie Parker and Jimi Hendrix.