Re: [Harp-L] 5th Position



I've been playing those same Dm tunes in Bb as well. Alone Together is a great song. And I was wondering about that tricky bit. Probably help if I looked at the sheet music again. Kenny Dorham does a beautiful version of this song. Lot's of great sustained notes. No place to improvise really, but a good one to listen to a lot.

Peter

On Apr 16, 2010, at 3:02 PM, Bill wrote:

I use 5th for St James Infirmary in my blues set at the moment (Dm on a Bb) and i've used it for Summertime now and again. I've used it for jazz tunes more though, I've done Alone Together a fair bit, again in Dm on a Bb which is nice as it goes to Gm or 4th position in the bridge. The tricky bit is when it goes to D major for the last couple of bars of the A section which took a bit of work

I guess one way of thinking about position playing, would be to look at what i think of as the default modal scale on the harp and work out how many changes you need to play a different scale with a common root. So to turn your 5th position phrygian mode into a dorian you need to sharpen the 2nd and the 6th, to make it mixolydian, the 2nd, the 3rd and the 6th for Ionian or the major scale, the 2nd, the 3rd, the 6th and the 7th etc.

There's some good exercises you can do moving between them, which is one of those bits of practice i should do more of i think - it needs OBs or valving or whatever though. What doesn't is the fifth mode of harmonic minor or Spanish Phrygian, play G harmonic minor on a Bb over a D7 chord and you'll get my drift






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