Fwd: 4th position

["Winslow Yerxa" <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>]

- --- In harp-l-archives@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "Mark Wilson" 
<markwilson53@xxxx> wrote:

Any 4th position wizards out there willing to help me out with some 
of the
basics?  I've checked all my instructionals, the harp-l archives, and 
all
over the net without much luck.

======================

Mark - 

Fourth position isn't all that commonly used, but it's actually the 
position whose basic scale and chords are best suited to minor blues, 
where both the I and IV chords are minor. Both second and third 
positions have "hard-wired" major notes for the IV chord. )I should 
hasten to add that with enough bending technique, or even with 
discreet use of the given notes, fourth, like any position, can be 
used for any type of scale.)

Let's say we're using a C-harp. Fourth position will be A. Your home 
notes (A) are in Draw 6, Draw 10, and Draw 3 bent down 2 semitones. 
All the other notes of the A minor chord are blow notes, while the 
rest of the draw notes aren't, though they may blend with it well.

To get used to playing with the A minor chord, get some kind of drone 
or groove going based on the A note or the A minor chord - you could 
download the MIDI drones I created from:

http://www.angelfire.com/music2/harmonicainfo/

Play around with starting out from A and going to the blow notes, 
then hanging out at each of the chord notes in turn and exploring the 
neighboring notes, both blow and draw.

Your IV chord, D in the key of A, is also a minor chord. here you 
have a full minor chord (with an added note, the 6th) in all the draw 
notes from holes 4 through 10. Going to the IV chord is like 
switching to third position. Explore the notes of the chord against a 
drone or one-chord groove, then start brancing out to the blow notes.

Your V chord in a minor key can be either major or minor. If it's 
minor, then you can work off the most basic approach to fifth 
position. In A minor, the V chord is either E minor or E7. Two of the 
notes of the E minor chord, E and G, are blow notes, in holes 2-3, 5-
6 and 8-9. B is the third note in the basic chord, and it's a draw 
note found next to D, which works well with the chord. The B-D 
combination can be found in Draw 3-4 and 7-8. Note that the 
combination G-B-D can be found in Draw 2-3-4, and Draw 2-3 can be 
alternated with Blow 2-3 for all sorts of rhythmic takes on the basic 
minor chord. Try connecting the chord fragments as strings of melody 
notes: B-D-E, E-D-B, D-E-D-B, etc.; E-G-A-B in all directions; and so 
on. Use a chord drone.

E7 has a major third - G# instead of G. You can bend for this in Draw 
3 (the deepest bend) and Draw 6. You can't easily play this 
simultaneoudly with other chord notes. but you can play a chord 
fragment involving G, then go to G# as a single note.

This just skims the surface but may help get tyou started.

Rhythm Willie recorded a great blues in fourth 
position, "Breathtakin' Blues" that's available on variouos reissues. 
he makes extensive use of the top octave anf the blow bends that 
outline the I minor chord.

Perhaps the first recorded use of fourth position was by a harmonica 
player name Pit Paré in May 1929 in Montréal. It's a tune called Clog 
Dance (a generic title for the type of tune played) and you can hear 
it online at the National LIbrary of Canada's Virtual Gramophone at:

http://www2.nlc-bnc.ca/gramophone/plsql/app78rpm.itemdisplay?
ccode=1&sql_clause=&where_clause=&hitsperpage=&page=&item_nbr=13221&st
artsearch=&actionfb=&lang=e&temptablename=&srttyp=TI

- - you'll have to cut and paste that long url onto a single line of 
text to make it work. Otherwise, you can go to

http://www2.nlc-bnc.ca/gramophone/plsql/browse.audiomain?lang=e

look under performers, clikc on "P" and scroll down until you find 
Paré and his two available performances.

Winslow