Brief History and Types of Mouth Organ

Brief History :

The mouth organ was invented in 1821 by the German clock maker, Christian Friedrich Ludwig Buschmann, and quickly became popular among the masses due to its simplicity (easy to learn to play), conveniently small size, inexpensive cost and pleasing sound. Within a short time other builders began manufacturing the instrument. In 1825 Fr. Hotz began producing mouth organs in his factory in Knittlingen, Germany. Another German, Christian Messner, acquired some of Christian Buschmann's auras. He set up shop in his clock making firm in Trossingen in 1827 and began manufacturing instruments that were similar to Buschmann's 'aura.' Messner called these instruments mundaeolines.

During the year 1829, J. W. Glier began manufacturing mouth organs at his factory in Klingenthal, Germany. In 1855 the German, Christian Weiss, started producing mouth organs. Finally in 1857 a firm in Trossingen Germany began mass producing harmonicas (MO) for the public. At the head of this company was the famous Matthias Hohner. Today the manufacture of harmonicas in Europe is in the sole domain of the Hohner harmonica factory at Trossingen.

When Hohner first began producing harmonicas, in 1857 his factory produced a mere 650 harmonicas. In 1879 he increased his production to over 700,000 harmonicas. At the turn of the century, the company was producing five million harmonicas annually. Since that time, the Hohner company has expanded their production to over fifty diatonic and chromatic harmonica models.

After that China became the biggest competetor of German brands in production of MO.

Types of Mouth Organ

There are many types of mouth organs. But the most important ones which we need to know about are Diatonic Mouth Organ and Chromatic Mouth Organ. But as I told u at very first that I don't want to make it too deep and complex, I explain the difference between these two in the layman language.

Diatonic Mouth Organ

Diatonic MO doesn't have a scale changer, a round button present at the side which is used to slide a bar in MO which changes the scale. For example : Common brands found in India are 'Hero' and some other chinese companies which we generally get in India having price ~ Rs.175 - 200. Depends upon ur bargaining capacity and the the idiocy of the shop keeper...hahaha.



Hohner is a German brand which produces all types of MO.

Chromatic Mouth Organ

Chromatic Mouth Organ has a scale changer. Bcoz of this facillity we can play Sharp and Flat Notes; Komal Swar - Indian Classical Musical Term (see Introduction to New Terms for more details). Hence on this type of MO, u can play all types of songs.
In India the most popular (and cheap hence favourite of the general MO players...hahaha) brand is 'Tower'. Tower is a good brand for the begginers and also for many professionals. But one more brand, Hohner, (although a bit expensive) is one the best brands for Chromatic MO.


However, for all the begginers I recommend Tower brand as I'll be giving explainations using this brand. And when u'll feel a bit perfection in MO playing u can start using Hohner or some better brands.

There are also some other types of Mouth Organ but explaining those would be a bit complex and I think its not very important for us at this level.
If anybody wants some detailed explaination these two and other types of MO, please create a separate forum for that where we'll discuss the extra information.