Harmonica

The original meaning of "harmonica" was what is now commonly called a "glass harmonica."
It was similar to that old trick we used to do after dinner. You remember . . .
we filled the drinking glasses to different levels and rubbed a finger on the rims.
Or hit them [gently] with a tea spoon.

In modern usage, a harmonica is a wind instrument with many air holes.
Blowing into a given hole produces one specific pitch,
while drawing air through the same hole produces another.

Some harmonicas have a mechanism for bending pitches, making them fully chromatic.
More common are the diatonic harmonicas such as our musuem has.
A diatonic instrument can only play the notes of one major scale.

The two in the middle here are the ever-popular ten-hole diatonic harmonicas.
(This Marine Band is pitched in the key of G, while this Bluesband is in C.)
On top is a diatonic with a greater range, with deep resonant tones on the low end.
The one on the bottom is a four-hole, covering exactly one high-pitched octave!

Harmonica is perhaps most closely associated with folk and blues music;
however, it has been used effectively in many other categories of music.
Huey Lewis certainly made a case for its viability in straight-ahead rock-n-roll!

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