Straight harp

[Winslow Yerxa <76450.3230@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

TO: internet:harp-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Most blues players playing straight harp use the top and bottom octave,
avoiding the middle octave - witness Walter Horton's Hard Hearted
Woman. The one exception that comes to mind (and a partial one at
that) is Sonny Boy Williamson II's "Trust My Baby" (also recorded
by Kim Wilson on Tigerman). Jimmy Reed used the top octave almost
exclusively.

The reasons have to do mostly with bending notes of the tonic chord.
Let's look at a C-harp, expanded to show draw and blow bends:


     ========================================
DRAW | D | G | B | D | F | A | B | D | F | A |
     | Db| Gb| Bb| Db| ~ | Ab|   |   |   |   |
     | - | F | A | - | - | - |   |   |   |   |
     | - | - | Ab| - | - | - |   |   |   |   |
     ========================================
BLOW | C | E | G | C | E | G | C | E | G | C |
     |   |   |   |   |   |   | ~ | Eb| Gb| B |
     |   |   |   |   |   |   |   | - | - | Bb|
     ========================================

When you're playing crossharp (2nd position), you're playing in
the key of G, using the G draw chord that dominates the first six
holes of the harp. All these notes can be bent. The G blues scale

G Bb C Db D F

can easily be played in this region.

When you're playing straight, you're playing in C. All the blow
notes form a C major chord, but only those in Holes 6 thru 10 can
be bent. The C blues scale:

C Eb F Gb G Bb

is available only in this range (I'm leaving overblowing out of
this discussion).

Bending 8, you can get Eb, the minor third, a blue note. Blow 9 gives
you Gb, the flat fifth, another blue note. Hole 10 gives you both B and
Bb, the latter the minor seventh, another blue note. All these notes can
be strung together one one breath, allowing you a giddy, slippery slur
across this region. Again, check out Jimmy Reed for the prototype of
this style (Stevie Wonder also used this for his top 40 hit "Boogie On
Reggae Woman" in the '70's, and numerous modern blues players use it.)

The bottom octave gives you draw D, G and B. D doesn't figure in the C
chord and isn't especially bluesy, but G, the fifth, can be bend down to
Gb - the flat fifth, and to F, the fourth note in the scale. B can be
bent down to Bb - the blue seventh, and A, the sixth degree.

Some typical lines in the bottom octave:

b = bent down one semitone

/ = 1 beat

/    /      /   /          /  /   /  /
4B - 3Db - 2D 2Dbb 2B 1B | 4B 3Db 2D

/  /    /      /        /  /    /   /
2B 2Dbb 2Db 2D 2Db 2Dbb 2B 2Dbb 2Db 2D

   /   /   /    /   /  /  /  /
2D 4D  4D    2D 4D  2D-----  2Dbb 2B 1B
   3Db 3Db      3Db

/  /          /
2D 3Db 2D 3Db 4B   (Hoochie Koochie Man)

/  /  /  /    /   /    /   /       /
1B 2B 3B 3Dbb 3Db 3Dbb 2D  2Dbb 2B 1B

Those 2 and 3 draw bends yield a lot of stuff if you work them.

THE MIDDLE OCTAVE

This is the wheezy octave, the Bob Dylan octave, etc. The notes
that bend aren't bluesy notes, and the draw 5 bends like nails on
a blackboard. But you can still use it. The draw notes can be
used as auxiliary notes the blow chord notes - D down to C, F
down to E, A down to G - or C-D-C, E-F-E, G-A-G. Something like
this can be followed by a trailing fall down the blow chord. For
instance:

/  /
5D 5B 4B 3B

You can also play lines in this range, but disguise the straight
sound of it with warbles - rapidly alternating the main note with
the hole above, in lines like:

/  /  /  /  /
5B 5D 6B 5D 5B 4B|

You can also use notes in the middle octave as extensions of
lines in the top and bottom octaves:

<From the top:

/        /      /
9B 8B 7B 6D  7B 8B  9B

/  /  /  /  /  /   /
6B 6D 7B 8B 9B 10D 10Bbb

<From the bottom:

/     /      /      /
2D 2D 3Db 2D 4D 3Db 4B

/  /  /  /   /  /  /   /    /  /   /     /       /
5B 4B 4D 3Db 4B 3B 3Db 3Dbb 2D---------  2Dbb 2B 1B

===I-IV-V CHORD PROGRESSIONS

So far we've been talking just about the C chord. In C blues and
a lot of other music, we also need to deal with the F chord (IV)
and G chord (V).

Of course the G chord is built in and ready to go - you already
know it as cross harp. If you've heard Walter Horton's famous
version of "La Cucaracha," then you've heard what can be done with
these two positions in tandem.

La Cucaracha is just I and V chords alternating:

C         C         C         G7
/ / / / | / / / / | / / / / | / / / / |

G7        G7        G7        C
/ / / / | / / / / | / / / / | / / / / |  etc.

And, of course, the melody lies square in the dreaded middle
octave.

The IV chord is'nt as obvious, buth it's there nonetheless, with
some inconveniences and pitfalls.

An F major chord is F-A-C. In the middle and upper ranges we have
F-A-B-D in the draw, while C is a blow note. D is the 6th note in
the F scale and blends in fairly easily. By adding in the blow C
we can get runs like this:

4B - 4D - 5D- 6D - 7B - 8D - 9D - 10D - 10B
C    D    F   A    C    D    F    A     C

B is a chancier note. True, it's the flat five blue note, and you
can play it and raise it to C. But you can't slur it and it runs
the risk of sounding wimpy. DON'T play it indiscriminately in
a chord - it will sound awful.

in the top octave you can get the 7th of the F7 chord - Eb, by
bending a blow note. Bending the G is also cool - it works a lot
like the draw 6 in cross harp. Blow 10 is very cool - the fifth
of the chord bending all the way down to the fourth.

In the bottom octave, you have to bend to get F and A, and you
can raise these in melodic patterns, or use them to cut straight
across in an F6 chord like in the upper octaves:


1B - 1D - 2Dbb - 3Dbb - 4b
C    D    F      A      C    (continue up with previous pattern)

There's more, but this is getting kind of long.

One other artist to check out for straight harp fluency is the
amazing Don Les, the original bass harmonica player for the
Harmonicats. He was also phenomenal at playing standards and jazz
tunes in first position on diatonic, and had an astonishing
fluency, including the high register. Recently deceased, he has
two cassette albums out via F&R Farrell, and is also on the SPAH
video of the gala concert from the 1994 Convetion in Memphis,
where he shares the stage with his equally amazing pupil, the
11-year old Uwe Pentzold from Germany..


Winslow Yerxa
Harmonica Information Press
Z
Z