Re: [Harp-L] A question for sight readers

[Paul Bowering <paul_bowering@xxxxxxxxx>]

"Dave Murray" <dlmurray@...>
wrote:
>
> When I was a boy, my aunt taught me to play the
>piano from sheet music. The dot on the page that
>represented A above middle C could be played in one
>spot on the keyboard. ... Not so for the harp if I
>put the C harp down and pick up a Bb harp, the
>relationship moves. How to you deal with that?


Admittedly this adds another level of difficulty not
faced by chromatic instruments. 12 root notes all
playable on 12 differently keyed harps. That's already
144 combinations.

You could try thinking in relative rather than
absolute terms. First, figure out the key of the song;
let's assume C major. Next, decide the position you'll
be playing in. Of course this will change for each
harp but for your example Bb harp you'd be in third
position. Now, that 'A' note happens to be the VI
degree of the C major scale. Where do you find the VI
degree when playing third position? Hole 7
Draw.

As root, a 'C' note is considered the I of the scale.
Always found at Draw 4 when playing third position. In
this way you are considering each notes placement in
the scale rather than the actual note.

Another similar idea would be to always think in terms
of the layout for a key of 'C' harmonica. The notes
will always be the same in your mind. Then you
mentally transpose written music by the same
difference (opposite direction) between the song's key
and your harp key. In our example the harp is two
semi-tones below the song's key so the 'A' note you're
looking for becomes a pretend 'B' note on our pretend
C harp. Draw 7 of course.

Both these approaches still require some mental
gymnastics. I can't pretend to be good at it but there
are lots of musicians who can transpose on the fly.

Paul



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