Re: 3rd Position

[PL500@xxxxxxx]

In a message dated 5/21/04 5:45:17 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
harplicks@xxxxxxxxx writes:
Hi,

Mark poses an interesting question about George
Smith. Thanks to Jp's cool link I was able to put
together a rough set of percentages on George's 3rd
position playing.

I went ahead and did a quick "tally" of George's
harp/positions from that list. Kind of anal, I
know, but hey, I was interested. Sometimes George
switched harps mid-song, so I counted each switch
as a seperte song in my tally.

I came up with a total of 96 for the material
listed on the six albums.

49 times in 2nd position
29 times on chromatic (almost all in 3rd) 
14 times on diatonic in 3rd
4 times in 1st

At first glance it looks like 2nd position is a
shoe-in.

51% 2nd position
30% chromatic (mostly in 3rd)
15% 3rd on diatonic
4% in 1st.

But if you add the chromatic work (mostly 3rd) with
the diatonic 3rd position work you get 43, or 44%.
Dang near half.

Well, that was fun!

Personally I play only maybe 10%-20% in 3rd, but
I'd have to do a tally from my band's song list to
be sure. I love playing in 3rd but it doesn't sound
right to my ears on a lot of songs. I came to 3rd
position late in my harpin' life, so I naturally
gravitate towards 2nd.

Harpin' in Colorado,
- --Ken M.
In reality, 

When you play 2nd position, when you go to the V. You are in effect playing 
in 3rd position. It's really odd that positions are defined in a matter of 
overall keys when they should be defined in the idea of changes for a song. So in 
reality GHS was playing 3rd position about 96% of the time! Anyway, I thought 
that notion was good for a chuckle.........

Andrew