Pluck and shape
Tap the mouth pad to pluck the reed, then slide while it rings: the vowel moves from a round u to a bright i and a different overtone of the same note comes forward, the wah-wow every jaw harp is known for.
India · Free · No account
Online jaw harp - one note, a mouthful of overtones
The reed of a jaw harp always plays the same note. What changes is your mouth: as it opens, closes and moves, it picks out one overtone after another and the twang starts to sing. Pluck the morsing of South India, slide across the mouth pad to shape the sound, then play the konnakol rhythms it follows in Carnatic music.
10 OVERTONES
5 RHYTHMS
5 REED PITCHES
100 % SYNTHESIZED
0 INSTALL
What you get
Your mouth is the instrument
On a jaw harp the reed does the twang and the mouth does the music. This page puts the mouth under your finger.
The overtone ladder
The pad shows overtones 3 to 12 of the reed with their note names. From the 8th up they are close enough to play a scale; the 7th and the 11th fall between two notes, which gives the jaw harp its strange colour.
Konnakol rhythms
In Carnatic music the morsing follows the mridangam drum and the spoken syllables of konnakol. Pick Ta Ka Di Mi or Ta Ka Gi Na Thom and listen to the jaw harp pluck and shape each syllable.
Let it pluck for you
Press Pluck for me: the reed keeps plucking the rhythm, and all you do is move the mouth. It is the fastest way to hear how much melody hides in a single note.
Play the rhythm yourself
Press My rhythm: a soft click marks the beat, you pluck one syllable per box with a tap or the space bar, and each pluck turns green in time or red if not, with a counter.
Five reeds
Choose a reed in C, D, E, F or G. A real jaw harp can only be lowered a little; here you switch reed in one click, and the note names on the ladder follow.
Getting started
Make the jaw harp talk
Pluck
Tap the mouth pad, or press Space: the reed twangs on its note.
Shape
Tap again and slide left and right while it rings: the overtones move.
Let it pluck
Press Pluck for me and draw a slow melody across the ladder.
Konnakol
Choose Ta Ka Di Mi, press Listen, then My rhythm to pluck it yourself.
Specifications
The full sheet
| Type | Jaw harp (morsing), playable on this page, free |
|---|---|
| Mouth pad | Left to right: overtones 3 to 12, vowels u to i; bottom to top: soft to clear |
| Reed | C, D, E, F or G (third octave), with the note name of each overtone |
| Rhythms | Ta Ka, Ta Ki Da, Ta Ka Di Mi, Ta Ka Gi Na Thom, Ta Ka Di Mi Ta Ka Ju Nu; 40 to 120 BPM |
| Modes | Listen, Pluck for me, My rhythm (each pluck timed) |
| Keyboard | Space pluck, A to ; overtones 3 to 12, arrows move the mouth |
| Sound | Synthesized in the browser: reed, mouth resonances, drone, finger click |
| Requirements | Any modern browser with Web Audio - Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari |
How a jaw harp works
A jaw harp is a frame with a thin, flexible tongue fixed at one end. The player presses the frame against the teeth, without touching the tongue, and plucks its bent free end, the trigger. The tongue vibrates on one fixed note, rich in overtones; the mouth and throat act as a resonating chamber, and by changing their shape the player brings out one overtone or another. Breath and the movements of the tongue add rhythm and colour, and some players even speak through it.
The morsing of South India
In India the jaw harp is called morsing in the Carnatic music of the south and morchang in the folk music of Rajasthan. The morsing has a horseshoe-shaped iron frame with two parallel forks and a steel tongue between them. In a Carnatic concert it plays beside the mridangam drum, like its shadow: the player knows the konnakol syllables the drummer plays and shapes them silently with the tongue. Its pitch can only be lowered a little, with beeswax on the tip of the tongue. Under hundreds of names, jaw harps are played across Asia, Europe and beyond.
More to play from India
Play a raga on the online sitar, keep the rhythm on the tabla, and find every instrument on the world music studio map.
Questions
Frequently asked
Is this online jaw harp free?
Yes. The jaw harp at the top of this page is free, with no account and nothing to install. Its sound is synthesized in your browser with the Web Audio API, so there is no sound file to download.
How can one note make a melody?
The reed vibrates at one pitch, but its sound contains many overtones, at two, three, four times that frequency and more. Your mouth works like a tunable filter: shaped one way it boosts the 6th overtone, another way the 8th or the 10th. Slide across the mouth pad and you hear them one after the other.
What is konnakol?
The art of speaking the syllables of rhythm in the Carnatic music of South India: Ta Ka for two, Ta Ki Da for three, Ta Ka Di Mi for four, Ta Ka Gi Na Thom for five. The morsing player follows these syllables with the tongue while the mridangam plays them.
How do I play the jaw harp on a keyboard?
Press Space to pluck. The keys A, S, D, F, G, H, J, K, L and ; jump the mouth to overtones 3 to 12 and pluck. The left and right arrows move the mouth step by step, up and down make the sound clearer or softer.
Is a morsing the same as a Jew's harp?
Yes, they belong to the same family, also called jaw harp or mouth harp. The morsing is the South Indian version, with a heavy iron frame and a long tongue, used as a percussion instrument in Carnatic music.
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