Re: [Harp-L] Folk Harp

[Winslow Yerxa <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>]

For real folk music played on the harmonica, well, there's blues as one
type. There's also old-timey, celtic, jug band - you get the drift.
Plenty of players that could be named, too, in all those styles.

But it sounds like the singer-songwriter thing is what you're thinking
of. For some reason a songwriter plays an acoustic guitar and some
people call it "folk" when folk is the opposite - songs that have been
around and styles that have been around for hundreds of years and are
part of the culture.

Minor keys? No need in particular for overblows. Every minor scale is
based on a major scale starting on a different note of the scale. For
instance, the C major scale is also the A minor scale (or the version
of it called "natural" minor. The C major scale also gives you minor
types of scales on D and E. So there are three minor-sounding scales on
one harp, no overblows at all.

There's no reason to avoid second position, either just because you're
not playing blues. It has plenty to offer and can even be made to sound
minor by making sure to bend Draw 3 down.

In fact, Lee Oskar makes a harp that plays natural minor in second
position. You buy, say, an A Natural MInor Lee Oskar, play it in second
position, but it comes out in a minor scale in A minor (the key is
"labeled in second position").

Winslow

--- Carter castor <cjcastor@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> I studied the harp for a couple years, learning songs, playing along
> with cd's, but I haven't played much in the past year because I never
> found someone to play with.  Recently, however, I met a friend who
> writes and plays folk music, and he wants to work together after I
> improved behind him a little one night by playing chords and
> sustained
> notes with a little riffing.
> 
> I've only really played along with blues before though, and I'm not
> completely sure how to handle folk.  I got Jon Gindick's Rockin' the
> Folk, and that has helped, particularly his section on Oh Susanna,
> but
> I was wondering whom would be some good folk harmonica players to
> listen to and get ideas from.  His style reminds me a lot of James
> Taylor, but he seems to have a bit of emo influence in the vocals
> from
> his rock band.
> 
> (I think this is also going to mean learning overblows, grrr, as I
> like the sound of straight harp with his work, and he likes to use
> minor keys).
> 
> Thanks for any help.
> -- 
> Carter
> 
> http://icasualties.org/oif/US_NAMES.aspx
> _______________________________________________
> Harp-L is sponsored by SPAH, http://www.spah.org
> Harp-L@xxxxxxxxxx
> http://harp-l.org/mailman/listinfo/harp-l
> 



 
____________________________________________________________________________________
Yahoo! Music Unlimited
Access over 1 million songs.
http://music.yahoo.com/unlimited