Re: [Harp-L] that darn E harp

[Philharpn@xxxxxxx]

Greetings harpers: 

I have this sinking feeling that answers to most of the technical questions 
that come up on the Harp List could be found in The Complete 10-hole Diatonic 
Harmonica Series by James Major published by Mel Bay. Check your local 
harmonica dealer or Amazon, B&N, Borders or whatever.

FYI: The E Harmonica Book informs:
You can play   E Blues 1st position, B blues 2nd, F# blues 3rd, C# blues 4th, 
Ab blues 5th, Eb blues 6th and A blues 12th.

I have the complete set and at $7.95 each, you can buy all 12 keys for less 
than $100 -- and have your own personal encyclopedia of harp information and 
trivia.

Which means, if you want to know if you can play a blues scale without 
overblows, all you have to do is look it up.

While the book series only deals with positions 1,2,3,4,5,6 and 12, this is 
probably enough for starters. I mention this because I'm sure there are some 
other things omitted. 

The books are 48 pages, and about 11 inches x 8 1/2 inches and about a 
half-inch thick.

They have notes, scales, modes, positions, chords, arpeggios, bends, 
overbends (overblows-overdraws), blues basics, theory and diatonic models.

It's not real heavy on theory, just enough to get you going and help you 
figure out what you need to know.

While this book series explains how to do certain techniques such as bending 
and overblows and pursing and tongue blocking it is not an instruction book. 
It is a reference book.

There is also a page of a rather complete glossary of musical terms. Just in 
case you want to get your harmonica terms straight.

For example, most people are aware that it takes 3 notes to make a chord. 
Anything less is not a chord. You could call it a dyad -- and James Major has a 
small section on play two notes -- dyads. Dyads are the same as intervals. But 
dyads sound so much more arcane and everybody knowns, what harmonica players 
need more of its, more arcane.

This series of books has just about every bit of background a harmonica 
player needs to make sense of his/her diatonic harmonica and where to play 
individual notes, carefully explained on graphics.

Plus, there is a Circle of Fifths, if you don't have your own personal copy 
yet. Just photocopy it and keep it in your harp box.

There are a lot of incomplete and oversimplified harmonica books out there -- 
I know because I own most of them. But you can't go wrong with this set.

These books have been out since 2005 and I did an extensive review of the set 
in American Harmonica Newsmagazine when they were first released. I probably 
said they were the greatest thing since sliced bread. I still stand by that.

Some of this information is available on the Internet and there are some 
great pages out there. Any you know who you are. But for me, nothing beats having 
a book in your hands that you can flip pages back and forth. 

Phil Lloyd







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