Re: [Harp-L] harp key???

[Michael Rubin <michaelrubinharmonica@xxxxxxxxx>]

Richard, he was saying 7th is F# on a C harp, 1/2 step lower than the cross
harp key.  B is 6th on a C harp.  Both positions are awesome fun for blues
and minor music and both are bears for major music.  I wouldn't call them
ideal, but I love both of them to pieces!

But, on a whole, I agree with your post.  Sebastien's answer is unrealistic
to say the least.
Michael Rubin
michaelrubinharmonica.com

On Sat, Nov 14, 2015 at 7:41 PM, Richard Hunter <turtlehill@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

> Sebastien Fremal wrote:
> <He can play with the same harp in seventh position...
> <
> <It's playable, but your friend has to get a lot of technic to do so. It's
> <not easy to play chromatic on a diatonic harmonica, but it's not as hard
> as
> <depicted by M. Hunter. It's really really really hard, but it doesn't take
> <a lifetime if you concentrate on it.
>
> My advice was intended to be practical, and I think it's quite a stretch
> to believe that a guy who can't tune his guitar down 1/2 step without
> mixing his harps up is going to be able to play 7th position, with the
> requisite overblows, on a rack without years of study (if ever).  You did
> say "It's really really really hard," right?  And that's assuming that you
> know enough theory to start with to know when you need to overblow, which
> this guy most certainly does not.  I doubt he even knows where to find a B
> on a C diatonic.
>
> It wouldn't take a serious harp player with a significant knowledge of
> music a lifetime to learn 7th position, but it's not clear to me that the
> guy we're talking about is a serious musician, let alone a serious harp
> player. The likeliest time frame for this guy to learn the necessary
> overblowing technique and theory to the degree required to play even simple
> tunes in 7th position is never.
>
> In fact, I wouldn't propose 7th position as the ideal solution to this
> problem to any harp player, let alone a novice.  Is there anybody on this
> list who thinks that the ideal harp for playing in the key of B (and on a
> rack!) is a C harp? I doubt it, for the same reason that I don't wear heavy
> boots when I go swimming: it's remotely doable, but it's s lot more work
> than fun.  And where less-than-expert players are concerned, it also sounds
> a whole lot worse.
>
> If there's a good reason for proposing this solution to a novice player
> who so far hasn't found the time to learn basic theory, let alone advanced
> harp technique, and who needs a practical approach right now, not years
> from now, I don't know what it is.
>
> Thanks, Richard Hunter
>