[Harp-L] Re: Dylan (and positions)



Agreed. Man in the Long Black Coat - greatest harmonica track, ever.

It's definitely one of Dylan's best. He plays this song in F# minor on an A harp... yes, Dylan plays 4th position! It's a great song to learn that position, because he uses very few bends on it and you can pick it out by ear.


As for normal Dylan-style 1st position playing, that will be a great exercise in re-learning 1st position. His style is surprisingly hard to imitate (though easily spoofed). One of his tricks is to play a single note and, while holding it, widen his mouth to get a small chord. He also does that in reverse, going from a chord to single note. You can learn a lot about these techniques from the book "The Harp Styles of Bob Dylan" by Amy Appleby. It's not a fakebook at all (only a dozen or so songs are tabbed out), but the entire focus is on his harp playing and how to learn it. The songs chosen by the author are quite diverse and include 1st, 2nd, and 4th position playing. There are also detailed chord charts and guitar tabs for those songs, which your guitar player might find useful.

The other excellent source I have found is Christer Svensson's list of the harp key and position for just about every song Dylan ever played harp on. You can find it here (bookmark it!):

http://www.dylanchords.com/harp/harpkeys.htm

Those two resources should help you tremendously in your tribute band!

Jonathan Metts, Official Harp-L Dylan Fanatic





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