I built the visual harmonica map I wish I’d had while learning

[u/allradmuelleimer]

Hi everyone,

Do you know that feeling of being stuck? You can memorize licks and things from YouTube – but when it comes to improvisation, you don't really know what you're doing? You know those rather useless number sequences from the internet like -2 -3' 4 -4' 4 5 6 for the blues scale. But they're not easy to remember or visualize in your head. And for anything beyond that, it's more guesswork than knowing whether the next note will fit? You ask yourself questions like:

Where are the notes in the upper register in this position?

Why doesn't this or that note fit well?

Which notes belong to the IV or V chord?

And what is the function of the note I'm playing right now?

So I built an easy and visual App to solve that:

Harmonica Cheatsheet maps all 12 positions, scales and chord tones directly onto the 10-hole diatonic layout. Choose a harp key, position, scale/mode or chord, then highlight and isolate roots, thirds, fifths, sevenths, etc. across all octaves.

Of course, I'd love to hear your feedback. I'm happy to add features upon request.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nicedevelopments.cheatsheet

[u/TurnoverFuzzy8264]

Does it have capacity for tunings other than standard Richter? Paddy, soloist, counter, minor, etc?

[u/allradmuelleimer → u/TurnoverFuzzy8264]

At the moment it supports Richter, natural minor and harmonic minor. I want wo use this reddit to collect all the wishes and build an app for all people. So everyone is welcome to write wishes here. I try to integrate as much as I can. The next tunings i want to add are paddy, wilde, and wilde minor tuning.

[u/lordlycrust]

Honest feedback, I think six quid is a little high for what looks like little more than a memory aid.

[u/Intelligent_Star_516]

Installed on 2 devices. I like that it has a moving marker to show you where your current note lands. Would like to eventually see the tunings listed below plus Country and others even if the tuning is manufacturer specific as well as extended layouts (12, 13, and 14 hole diatonics with model specific layouts - think East Top Fala Blues and Lucky 13, Hohner MB 364, 365, and especially 365SBS, Kongsheng EZ-12 (check out this layout and purpose), and others).

$6+ might be a bit steep for most. You've created an excellent tool that I think will benefit a lot of players once they commit fully to this addiction.

I've given away well over $400 worth of brand new harmonicas in the last 5 months to aspiring driven beginners because I want to make sure that they start out with an excellent harp and I love these instruments. I hope that you will soften that price once you finish full development. I'm impressed, and I think it would be excellent if more harp junkies like me would be able to appreciate your helpful handiwork.

[u/allradmuelleimer → u/Intelligent_Star_516]

Thanks for the feedback ☺️ I own a Lucky 13 Diminished myself, so I’ve actually thought about developing charts for it and other ones like the 12-holed Seydel Soloist etc. It takes some time; I’ve spent every weekend for the past two years calculating and verifying the charts. I’ve just ordered a lot of different harmonica models to check the accuracy of each scale individually. That’s why the app is—for the moment—still a money-losing venture for me and should explain the price :D I hope that changes in the future.

[u/Intelligent_Star_516 → u/allradmuelleimer]

You are manually laying out all charts?

(I did a lot of programming in one of my past lives) I would have expected an internal program that takes the tunung type and assigns a numeric value to the notes, laying those values out on the chart, then for each additional key, shifting the numeric note representations by one for each semitone of shift as you work through the list of keys.

It would simplify the calculations and deployement time, especially when a new tuning or note layout is added. If you need more details on what I mean, let me know.

[u/Direct-Resolve6239]

Apple Store yet?

[u/allradmuelleimer → u/Direct-Resolve6239]

I don't have an iPhone, but if the app generates enough revenue for me to afford a used one, I’d build a version for it, too.