Re: [Harp-L] Modes, was 3rd Position Tunes

[Jp Pagan <jpl_pagan@xxxxxxxxx>]

--- In harp-l-archives@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "Dave Murray"
<dlmurray@...> wrote:

>
> From: "IronMan Mike Curtis" <ironmanmc@...>
> > Technically, positions do not equal modes. 
Fortunately, this won't 
> > matter until you need to know :-)
>

Dave said: 
> I'm curious as to what you mean by that. 

i'm not Mike but, the simplest answer is: positions
have to do with which key you are playing in relative
to the key of the harmonica. it doesn't matter what
scales or modes you are playing, only the key. 

besides, modes are very specific collections of notes.
the C Ionian Mode is JUST the noted CDEFGABC. if i
play a piece on a C harmonica that also includes Bb,
and Eb, but is still in the key of C, then i'm still
in 1st position but no longer in the Ionian mode.
another (common) example is the G blues scale: if i
play G blues on a C harmonica, it's second position
but i'm not playing in a mode. 


>If you exclude bent/altered notes 
> and only consider the ones that are naturally on a
diatonic instrument, key 
> changes walk hand in hand with mode changes. 

but again, that's ONLY if you all you ever play is
music in certain modes. there's got to be hundreds of
other scales beyond the 7 modes of the diatonic scale.
in fact, the vast vast majority of modern music around
the world isn't limited to those 7 modes. to try and
lock modes and positions together is to artificially
limit yourself (unless of course you only plan to play
modal music, in which case i suppose it makes little
difference).

>Yes, people bend notes, and do 
> over/underblows to get more notes, but that is
technique to escape the 
> limitations of diatonic instruments.

that's like saying that the black notes on a piano are
an attempt to "escape the limitations of" the white
keys. you can make notes on harmonica in a many
different ways. why limit yourself to a discussion of
just the easiest ones to play?


__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around 
http://mail.yahoo.com