The Lee Oskar Melody Maker Harmonica: A Complete Guide

Liam Ward
Sep 14
6 min read

The Lee Oskar Melody Maker is one of the most versatile altered tunings you can buy, and a favourite for harmonica players who want to go beyond blues. With just a few small changes to the standard Richter tuning, it opens up a whole world of melodies, chords, and genres that are much harder to play with expression and emotion on a regular diatonic. In this post, we’ll look at the note layout, the benefits, and some classic songs you can try out on it.

👉 Want to learn some songs on Melody Maker harmonica? Click here!

Melody Maker Note Layout: What’s Different?

Like other Lee Oskar harps, the Melody Maker looks like a standard 10-hole diatonic from the outside. Inside, though, the reed layout is slightly altered.

Default scale: the Melody Maker is designed so the major scale falls naturally in 2nd position (starting on 2 draw).
Altered notes: three reeds are tuned differently compared to Richter: the 3 blow, 5 draw and 9 draw notes. See the images below for a comparison.
Bending: you can still bend on a Melody Maker, and in fact, the bends open up new expressive possibilities — for example, you can bend hole 5 draw down to the flat 7, perfect for songs like Clocks by Coldplay.

👉 See my full tab sheet of Melody Maker scales

Standard Richter note layout:

Standard Richter-tuned diatonic harmonica note layout. — Standard Richter note layout

Melody Maker note layout (altered notes highlighted in blue):

Lee Oskar Melody Maker harmonica note layout. — Melody Maker note layout (altered notes highlighted in blue)

Benefits of the Melody Maker

The altered tuning of the Melody Maker harmonica creates a few major advantages:

Natural major scale in 2nd position: Perfect for pop, folk, country, reggae, R&B, and beyond.
Emotionality: Having the most important notes on the draw means you can get extra expression into your playing.
Chordal possibilities: Because of the blow/draw changes, you can play some different chords.

For this reason, the Lee Oskar company recommends the Melody Maker for playing R&B, country, reggae, pop, jazz and Latin music. They do not recommend it for blues players, especially if you want to imitate the classic sound of the blues harp.

Free Tabs for Melody Maker Harmonica

Here are some great songs to get you started on your Melody Maker harmonica:

All My Loving (The Beatles) - click for free tabs
Always On My Mind (Elvis Presley) - click for free tabs
Isn’t She Lovely (Stevie Wonder) - click for free tabs
No Woman No Cry (Bob Marley) - click for free tabs
Amazing Grace (traditional) - click for free tabs
Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen) - click for free tabs
Edelweiss (Sound of Music) - click for free tabs
Chariots of Fire (Vangelis) - click for free tabs
Jambalaya / On the Bayou - click for free tabs
The Boxer (Simon & Garfunkel) - click for free tabs
Summer of ’69 (Bryan Adams) - click for free tabs
The Winner Takes It All (ABBA) - click for free tabs

Lots of these songs - for example, Edelweiss - are great examples of the way you can use more inflective bending on the major scale using the Melody Maker. This is one of the main reasons this tuning is so cool.

These tabs are all in the default (2nd) position of the harmonica scale, but you can play songs outside of this position; let's now explore some of the options for going beyond 2nd position.

Going Beyond the Major Scale

One of the most exciting things about the Melody Maker is how it shifts the position system. Because of the altered layout, familiar modes fall in different places:

3rd position (Mixolydian) – This position starts on -1. It gives you an easy, expressive Mixolydian sound, a bit like 2nd position on Richter. Think Tequila or Clocks by Coldplay.
4th position (Dorian) – This position now starts on the altered 3 blow. The Dorian mode is great for songs like Scarborough Fair, Poor Wayfaring Stranger or House of the Rising Sun.
5th position (Aeolian / Minor Scale) – Fifth position starts on 2 blow, and gives you the full minor scale on a Melody Maker harp. This opens up darker, minor-sounding songs like Stairway to Heaven, Ain’t No Sunshine or Ghost Riders in the Sky.

It's also possible to play in 1st position, although it does feel a little odd. For example, try The Colonel Bogey March (aka Hitler Has Only Got One Ball). This song uses a 5 draw bend instead of the 5 overblow you'd need on a normal Richter harp.

The change of note layout has the effect of shifting scales along one position. The Mixolydian mode usually starts on 2 draw (2nd pos), but it now starts on -1 (3rd pos). The Dorian mode usually starts on 1 draw (3rd pos), but now starts on 3 blow (4th pos). The relative minor usually starts on -3// (4th pos) but now starts on 2 blow (5th pos).

Each position has its own character:

3RD POSITION - easy and expressive Mixolydian (like 2nd pos on standard harp)

4TH POSITION - easy Dorian mode (like 3rd pos on standard harp)

5TH POSITION - relative minor scale to 2nd pos major (like 4th pos on standard harp)

Playing songs outside of 2nd position can sometimes mean you need bends, but they certainly sound different from a Richter harp and, to my ears, pretty cool.

So while the Melody Maker is marketed as “the best harp for single-note melodies in major keys,” it's also full of creative surprises once you explore further.

Melody Maker labelling - what's in a key?

One of the things that makes the Melody Maker unique is how it’s labelled. Unlike standard Richter harps, which are labelled by the key you get in 1st position (straight harp), the Melody Maker is labelled by the key of its default 2nd position major scale.

That means when you pick up a G Melody Maker, you can instantly play in the key of G major starting on 2 draw. No mental gymnastics, no transposing – just grab the harp that matches the song key. G for G. D for D. A for A. Simple. But you will have to remind yourself of this if you're used to Richter harps.

2nd Position Major Scale (starting on 2 draw): G – A – B – C – D – E – F# – G (Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So, La, Ti, Do).

Behind the scenes, this scale comes from a few reed changes compared to Richter tuning (three notes are altered). These changes line up so that in 2nd position you always get a clean, playable major scale. This is true of all keys of the Melody Maker, which is available in nine keys.

While we're at it, why does this harp only come in nine keys?

Why Only 9 Keys of Melody Maker?

The Melody Maker is sold in nine keys: C, D, Eb, E, F, G, A, Bb, and high C. Because of the labelling system, these nine keys have a range equivalent to Richter harmonicas in lo F, G, Ab, A, Bb, C, D, Eb and F, respectively.

That’s technically only eight unique ranges, since the low C and high C harps both give you the same key in different octaves.

What's the reason for the limited range of keys? I asked Lee Oskar and he said they started out by making only a few of the most common keys, and then expanded due to public demand. I do hope they expand further to include all twelve keys in the future.

Bending on the Melody Maker harmonica

Because the Melody Maker’s default major scale sits in 2nd position, you suddenly have easy access to the root, 3rd, 5th and 7th degrees of the scale - the backbone of many melodies. On a Richter harp in 1st position, those notes can feel stale, but here they're expressive and emotional.

You can also bend 5 draw down a semitone to get the flat 7 if you need it. A perfect example is the middle eight of Clocks by Coldplay.

The top end of the harp is a little more limited. On a Richter-tuned harmonica, you can bend hole 9 blow to get the major 7, but on the Melody Maker you can’t bend 9 blow or draw to reach the flat 7. Some players, including Lee Oskar himself, use a kind of “halfway house” solution: tuning hole 9 draw as the flat 7 (like Richter), and bending 9 blow down to reach the major 7. That tweak isn’t part of the factory setup.

The Lee Oskar Melody Maker Harmonica - Conclusion

The Lee Oskar Melody Maker may look like just another harmonica, but those three altered notes make a world of difference. With the major scale sitting naturally in 2nd position and the ability to explore expressive modes, it’s one of the best harmonicas available for single-note melodies and beyond. Whether you’re playing folk standards, pop classics, or experimenting with new sounds, the Melody Maker opens up doors you just can’t walk through in the same way with a standard Richter harp.

If you'd like to buy a Melody Maker harmonica, you can use these Amazon links:

Key of C - https://amzn.to/47r5vkG

Key of G - https://amzn.to/42bXUTs

Key of D - https://amzn.to/47XOVck

Key of A - https://amzn.to/3UVarab

(I receive a small commission if you buy through one of these links - at no extra cost to you.)