Fwd: 12th position = 1st Flat Position

["Winslow Yerxa" <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>]

- --- In harp-l-archives@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, IcemanLE@xxxx wrote:
In a message dated 6/11/03 11:50:13 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
jpl_pagan@xxxx writes:


> 11 5ths above (or, 12 position) is really a
> FOURTH below the key of the harp. 

>At a Golden Year of Augusta Heritage Howard Levy MasterClass, we 
>discussed 
>this very topic and decided that 12th Position should also be 
>called "1st Flat 
>Position", as there is a cycle of fourths that goes in the opposite 
>direction 
>as the cycle of fifths, and it is much easier to think of going down 
>one fourth 
>as opposed to counting up 12 fifths.

This works fine if you are playing a C-harp (no flats in C major) and 
want to play in F Major (one flat in the scale).

But what if you are playing F minor on a C-harp? F minor has 4 flats, 
so "first flat" is not an accurate description.

What if you're playing in A (3 sharps) on an E-harp (4 sharps) with 
no flats in sight? Then you have to go through the mental exercise of 
saying, gee, having one *less *sharp has the same effect as having 
one *more *flat, regardless of the absence of actual flats.

It gets messy.

Counting backwards is easy enough if you know your cycle of 
5ths/4ths: 
1 - 12 - 11 - 10 (e.g. E-A-D-G, or Bb-Eb-Ab-Db, or whatever)

Winslow