My position on positions

["Stephen Shaw" <moorcot@xxxxxxx>]

I must say, before I joined Harp-l  a few months ago I was blissfully 
unaware of positions.  I spend 95% of my time playing traditional Irish 
music on low D and normal G diatonic harps.  This is , uncompromisingly, 
melody- playing.

To give examples:  on my D harp I play most of my tunes in (wait for it....) 
D major. But I play a significant minority of tunes in A major.  These tunes 
have this as their home key but have no G# in them.  Cross-harp eh?   I also 
play some tunes in what the guitar man would call E minor ( I know better, 
but as it works I shut up about it!).  A very few tunes I play in "B minor" 
(ditto).  Just one or two tunes I play are in what I would basically call G 
major.  These tunes have G as their tonic but they have no C# in them.  For 
melody playing on a diatonic, without fancy trickery of any sort, this I 
would contest is about as far as it goes.

In an uncanny way, the kind of music I play lends itself to this kind of 
approach on the diatonic harp - yet the music predates the instrument by 
hundreds of years.  I think it's all to do with modes.....

Oh Lord, I'm going to be picked up on "fancy trickery" aren't I!!   ;-)

Steve Shaw.

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