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Which harmonica is best for beginners if I want to play Bollywood songs because I heard that 10 hole C-type harmonica can't play all songs?

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  • Is your goal to become a harmonica player or do you just want to produce something that resembles a certain song as quickly as possible? The answer to your question might depend on how much work you're prepared to put in.
    – EdvinW
    Apr 26 at 21:04

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A diatonic harp will only play songs with diatonic notes - apart from bending some to find some chromatics. Chromatic harps will be able to play not only diatonic songs, but also those with chromatic (out of key) notes.

Whatever you get will be designated to a particular key, although it's possible to play in any key on a chromonica - once you're good enough.

So, maybe consider a set of harps (10 hole) in various common keys, which you'll be able to use standard (in the key marked), or cross-harp, as in a key a 5th away from the key everyone else plays in - just like Blues players do.

The C-type harp you mention will essentially play tunes in key C, and key G used as a cross harp. So if, for example, there's a song in, say, key D, it won't be much use. C is the most common key found in harps though, and playing alone, won't cause too many problems.

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  • Are 10 hole diatonics suitable to play Bollywood music? I don't know much about the genre, but if a song is based on something other than a standard major or a Dorian scale it might be hard to play well, and having several keys only helps partially.
    – EdvinW
    Apr 26 at 21:01

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