Re: [Harp-L] Jazz standards on the Diatonic and country too - harp and fiddle

[Winslow Yerxa <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>]

--- BiscuitBoy714@xxxxxxx wrote:

<snip>

> that 
> reminds me of something I wanted to ask yall.  Have you ever played
> with a 
> fiddle/violin player and found yourself doing the  same notes as the
> fiddle? It 
> seems that the harp and fiddle end up in the same  octave and even
> the same notes 
> a lot. Well, I guess if your using pentatonic  licks it's only
> natural, 

With any kind of licks or scales, the fiddle's comfortable range for
most players is from Hole 1 on a G-harp (the open G string) to an A or
B a little over two octaves higher 4th and 5th fingers on the E
string), i.e. Draw 6 or 7 on a C harp. This is because the fiddle's
"first position" (i.e. hand position, nothing to do with keys) is the
easiest position and will produce this range of notes without moving
the left hand up the neck. It just happens to be the range that is most
comfortable for most keys of diatonic harmonica (below Hole 7 for the
most part).

If you go lower than the fiddle on most diatonic harmonicas, you run
the risk of not being heard. Play an octave higher and you're in the
top end of the harp, where old-timey harp players tends to be
comfortable but where blues-based players tend to lack the familiarity
to be comfortable.

As to ending up playing the same notes when improvising, I guess if
you're playing out of the same tradition and are in the same circle of
players and listening to the same records, then what goes in comes out,
whether it's through a fiddle or a harmonica.

Winslow


 
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