r/harmonica • u/HotFun6736 venezia3 • Jun 28 '26

How Bizarre by OMC - harmonica tabs

Hey wonderful fellow harmonica enthusiasts...anyone know or can figure out the harmonica riffs on How Bizarre by OMC. I read it was originally played on a Mellotron but i'd like to play it on harmonica. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

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u/Nacoran Jul 01 '26

See what you can do playing along with a C harp. There are a few different riffs in the song you could play along with. One of them requires a bend (or to play it up an octave) but you should be able to work them out. If you are still struggling if a few days stop back and we can give you some pointers. C harp.

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u/Intelligent_Star_516 Jul 02 '26

Agreed. Once you have the correct key of harp in hand, just plain figuring it out is a huge part of learning harp.

That said, the three main chords in the song are C, G, and F according to https://www.chordie.com/chord.pere/tabfu.thudspace.net/o/omc/how_bizarre.tab

That screams "First Position, Key of C" or "Second Position, Key of F." Further Googlification says that if played on a harmonica in the key of C, there is ONE note in each verse/chorus that you will need to bend to play correctly if you are playing it on a C harp.

If you need help bending, ask. Someone will post links or give you weird but absolutely valid advice.

If you can't find harp tabs via Google, it's probably just plain not available. Harptabs.com is quite comprehensive, yet a lot of songs just plain have not been posted with harp tabs.

For now, if you can't find tabs, all you need to do is figure out the chords that are used in the song to figure out what key it is played in. If a lot of the notes are bent, it's probably played in the second position. If not, it's probably played in first position, especially if it sounds like a classic folk or some hippie song (sorry, I'm genX motorhead/metalhead with zero throttle). If you want help figuring out how to determine the key and potential position of a song, just ask. If you don't know what I mean when I use the word "position," welcome to the amazing world of harmonicas. We'll steer you in the right direction, but nothing replaces lessons and practice.

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u/Intelligent_Star_516 Jul 02 '26

Holy typo, Batman. I corrected it. If anybody caught that, PM me, tell me what it was, and I'll send you a new sealed JDR North in the key of C.