[Harp-L] 6th position

[George Brooks <gbrooks1@xxxxxxxxx>]

Rick Dempster wrote:

I'm curious to know if you use 3rd major, how you find it
and what sort of situations you'd use it in.
I'm also curious to know whether you play 6th minor with a
minor IV chord; of course I know that depends on the tune, but since
the choice is there, would you use 6th if a major IV was needed, or use
3rd instead where it falls naturally?

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Sorry to have taken so long to reply, but I'm just catching up with old 
posts on the archive after an intense bit of work at my day job.  I'll 
rarely choose third position for a major song, but I practice it so 
that it doesn't throw me off if a song that's primarily in another 
position modulates and lands me there.  My philosophy for choosing a 
harp/position for a given song is to try a bunch of them and see how 
the tune lays out on each, awarding plusses if the juicy notes like 4 
and 6 draw can be put to good use and deducting points if parts of the 
melody or progression are so awkward that they do not become smooth 
after a bit of work.

To answer your specific question, for reasons that I cannot articulate 
I am drawn to 6th position more than 3rd.  If a song otherwise lent 
itself to 6th position minor, I wouldn't move it to third position just 
because the IV was major.  But I would consider 5th position in such a 
case, another of my favorite positions for minor tunes.

If this is not helpful, please let me know and I will try to do better.

George