[Harp-L] Making Friends with 12th Position

[Mojo Red <harplicks@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hey gang,

I recently decided to try to make friends with 12th position again... mostly after hearing how Chris Michalek uses it so beautifully. I figured there must be something to it... despite the fact that the tonic lays on a bent note (2") in the lower register and the 5 draw in the middle register (I've always considerd 5-draw to be a sort of "dead note").

Well, guess what? 12th position is turning out to be a whole lot of FUN!!! I've been using it on 1st-position type blues songs and have been having a wonderful time exploring new licks. I'm finding that it lays GREAT for 1930s-style foolishness. The advantage over 1st position (IMO) is the fact that you have two adjacent octaves to comfortably work in without NEEDING a lot of overbends to make stuff sound jazzy/bluesy. The bends on 4 and 6 holes become your best friends, and best of all... the cool-sounding licks that lay easy are DIFFERENT from the ones I've been playing for the last 30-odd years. 

Old dog. New tricks. :-)

I've been goofing around with that old  I - VI - II - V chord pattern and have been having a phreakin' blast inventing 12-position old-old sounding melodies. 

Next challenge... 11 position. Awk! 

Harpin' in Colorado,
--Ken M.

Hope all you harpers out there have a Fantabulous holiday weekend.


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