Re: [Harp-L] Minor Swing Tabs or sheet music?

[Winslow Yerxa <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>]

So you want to improvise over Minor Swing, right?

OK, first off the tune is in A minor (someone mentioned sheet music in B minor, but that's not the usual key).

The chords include A minor, D minor, E7, and, at right near the end of the progression, Bb7 (which is a substitute for E7).

Now, because it's in a minor key, you may be thinking third position, as in A minor on a G harp. You could also play it in fourth position on a C harp, which ins some ways is a better fit.

==Third Position

This sort of works. The reason I say "sort of" is that a G harp has the note F# in Draw 3 and 7, which clashes with the D minor chord because that chord contains an F natural. To deal with that problem, you can simply avoid that note (or bend draw 3 down) whenever the D minor chord happens. However, you can't do much in the way of chording over the D chord, unless you're very careful.

The E7 chord contains a G#. You can get that note by bending Draw 1 or Draw 4 down. The blow G chord works like a version of an E minor chord and, depending on how bluesy you want to sound, that chord may work against an E7.

==Fourth position

A minor on a C harp gives you the "natural" minor scale, and this scale flows very nicely over a minor-key progression. The only alteration you really need to make is to bend for a G# (Draw 3 and Draw 6) over the E7 chord.

The key note, A, is found in bent-down Draw 3, Draw 6 (bendable) and Draw 10. It is not surrounded by notes of an A minor chord, but by the ntoes of the D minor chord. However, all the notes of the blow chord, when you play them against an A bass or A minor chord, make the sound of an A minor 7 chord, so you still have a chord pad to play off during the I chord.

The IV chord, D  minor, is the draw chord from Hole 4 through Hole 10 - again, a nice pad for chording and riffing.

The V chord, E7, requires a bend for G#, but you can play minor notes against it. You have E and G (E minor fragment) in the blow and B-D (E7 fragment) in the draw. Connect these withs cale notes and the occasional bent G# and you've got plenty to play with.

Even that Bb7 chord has notes on a C harp. The chord is Bb-D-F-Ab (Ab is the same as G#). You have D and F together as draw notes, and you can bend for Bb and Ab. For instance, you could play Bb (bent Draw 3, D (Draw 4) F (Draw 5) and Ab bent Draw 6) all in a row.

TIP:

By the way, don't forget that in fourth position, you can really wail on the high blow bends over this tune, and probabyl do it without thinking very much about the chord position. Try all your first-position Jimmy Reed-style licks and try adapting them to this new environment.

==CHORD PROGRESSION

Once you get past the intro, which just alternates A minor and D minor chords, here's the chord progression (each slash is a beat, each vertical line marks the beginning of a new bar, where you start over counting 1-2-3-4):

Am / / / | / / / / | Dm / / / | / / / / | E7 / / / | / / / / | Am / / / | / /  A7 / |


Dm / / / | / / / / | Am / / / | / / / / | E7 / / / | Bb7 / / / | Am / / / |

By the way, you can hear the definitive Django Reinhardt/Stephane Grappelly recording here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEzsPGHsi90

Winslow

--- On Tue, 8/5/08, Michael Meehan <mikemeehan2002@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
From: Michael Meehan <mikemeehan2002@xxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [Harp-L] Minor Swing Tabs or sheet music?
To: "Gary Popenoe" <gpopenoe@xxxxxxxxx>, "Mick Zaklan" <mzaklan@xxxxxxxxx>
Cc: "Harp-L" <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tuesday, August 5, 2008, 3:51 AM

Hi all,
  My band wants to try a version of Minor Swing. Straight up, I am not good
enough to improvise my way through it, once you get past the first few trademark
notes, know what I mean? So, I was wondering if anyone knew of any sheet music
that outlined a few barebones melody lines beyond the original riff (kind of
like a midi file might do), that I can use to build off of. 
  Thanks!! Mike


       
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