Re: [Harp-L] Minor Swing, Michelle Plas (and more on minor keys)

[Winslow Yerxa <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>]

Thanks for noting this. Mlle. Plas shows good tone and command of overblowing, and nice phrasing.

However, she seems to largely ignore the fact that the song is in a minor key. She's playing in second position and using unbent Draw 3, Blow 2, and Blow 5, all of which are all major-key notes in that position, and every time she plays them, they clash with the minor chords and weaken the essential minor feel of the tune. A little more attention to these details and she could get a lot more of the essential feeling out of this tune. 

Again, when you play in a minor key, choosing a position that defaults to a minor scale can help. Also, licks you already know in one position can often be in another position to create a minor key feel. For instance, if you're going to play a C harp in A minor, play familiar first position licks against and A minor chord (maybe throwing in the occasional D minor chord)  and see what happens. Suddenly those familiar licks take on a whole new flavor because you're playing in fourth position (A minor on a C harp). Similarly, try playing second position licks on a C harp, but against an E minor chord (with a dash of A minor here and there).  Suddenly they feel like minor key licks - you're playing in E minor (fifth position).

Going in the opposite direction, if you take third position licks played in D minor on a C harp, and play them over an F major chord, you'll find you've suddenly got some major-key licks in twelfth position.

In some of his recent Youtube videos, Chris Michalek/groovy gypsy/Buddha explores this concept.

Winslow
 
--- On Tue, 8/5/08, captron100@xxxxxxx <captron100@xxxxxxx> wrote:
From: captron100@xxxxxxx <captron100@xxxxxxx>
Subject: [Harp-L] Minor Swing Tabs or sheet music?
To: Harp-L@xxxxxxxxxx
Date: Tuesday, August 5, 2008, 7:18 AM

Michael Meehan wrote:
  My band wants to try a version of Minor Swing. 


Mike, i can't help u with tab or musical notation but you can listen to a
nice short version by the 
young French woman harp player, Rachelle Pas.  Check out her videos too.  
http://www.myspace.com/rachelleplas
ron

_______________________________________________
Harp-L is sponsored by SPAH, http://www.spah.org
Harp-L@xxxxxxxxxx
http://harp-l.org/mailman/listinfo/harp-l