Re: [Harp-L] head shake music theory

[Jp Pagan <jpl_pagan@xxxxxxxxx>]

--- In harp-l-archives@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx,
rainbowjimmy@... wrote:
>
> Yesterday I took my harp out to try and figure out
how to play a harp head shake
> on the piano. I'm playing the draw 5 and 6 

one thing leaps out at me: the "usual" - the most
common - head shake holes, for blues anyway, are the
3/4 draw shake, the 4/5 draw shake, and the 4/5 blow
shake. there's others too, but these are the ones i
hear the most. 

>on a D harp so that's a G note and a
> B note right? Plus I alternate between straight and
bent so that's Gb and Bb.
> Those aren't notes I usually associate with an A
blues scale yet I've used that
> headshake over the A chord in 2nd position for more
than 30 years.
> So am I playing the right notes? Am I doing the head
shake correctly? Why would
> a blues musician use a Bb note in the key of A? Or a
B for that matter.
> 
well, the G is part of the blues scale, and the B is
the 2nd degree of the A scale. Butterfield would use
that note quite a bit. it's not part of the blues
scale, but it does fit pretty well over certain kinds
of blues, like a jazzy blues or probably a rockish
blues. it's part of the A Mixolidian mode. it's really
not that uncommon anymore, i don't think. it also fits
into the Dorian mode which we use for the V chord
often. the Bb fits into the V chord blues scale. also,
if the shake itself works, bending it down a little
(you can't actually bend it all the way down to Gb and
Bb) might not sound too off in the right place in a
blues. 

  --Jp 

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