Re: Re: [Harp-L] 5th position

["Tim Moyer" <wmharps@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The Iceman wrote:
> Just play the notes, wherever they lay. Strive for the level where 
> you truly don't know what "position" you are playing in - get to 
> the point where it doesn't even matter.

Chris Michalek wrote:
> If you truly want to go where no man has gone before - play the 
> music that's in your head. Listen to the tone, flavors, rhythms, 
> colors, shapes that come to you naturally.  DON'T think of notes, 
> that's a bigger trap than thinking in positions.
>
> When I'm playing I don't think anything, I see colors, textures,
> waves of rhythms in my head.  That's what I play.  If I need do 
> break it down later and figure out what I played I can but what 
> would be the point?

Playing music isn't entirely about making notes on the instrument.  
Much of it is about creating or learning your part in a piece that 
is being played by an ensemble of musicians, finding where you can 
make the best contribution.  Thinking "modes" is about understanding 
how the piece you're playing is constructed, whether it's something 
you or your band wrote or something more standard.  
Thinking "positions" is a way of relating modes to the tuning of the 
harmonica to give you a set of notes to choose from that fit both 
the music and the instrument.  It's a point of departure, not a 
destination in itself.  

In the end, it's great to close your eyes and lose yourself in the 
textures and colors and rhythms of the music, but to get to that 
point, most of us need to know where we're starting.  Modes and 
positions are tools to help us understand.  Once we understand, we 
can forget.  

-tim

Tim Moyer
Working Man's Harps
http://www.workingmansharps.com/