Re: [Harp-L] H. Levy and Conceptualizing notes--piano

[Philharpn@xxxxxxx]

For those of you unfamiliar with the piano keyboard it is helpful to
remember that the piano keyboard (and other keyboards) is the perfect graphic
realization of how music works.

And you don't have to be a piano player to understand how it works -- just
that the piano shows exactly how the notes lie out next to each other.


This is not some dastardly device thought up by piano players to show off
their superior musical knowledge over those who do not read music and/or
understand music theory.

The diatonic scale has 7 notes & repeats the starting note (tonic). That
means (as every basic keyboard player knows) that if the first note is C
(adjacent left to the group of two black keys) the scale is played by simply
playing the white keys (left or right) till returning to the next C.

Playing all the notes (including the 5 black ones) yields the complete
chromatic scale (12 tones).

Thinking of a piano keyboard is simply a shorthand method of keeping the
music theory in hand.

Looking at a treble clef (G clef) with its five lines and four spaces is
just another way of looking at the same thing.

I have no idea how people relate to the harmonica (diatonic or chromatic)
who do know visualize a keyboard in their mind's eye.

I do know it sure make's it easy for me to play either the diatonic or
chrome -- whether playing by ear, working out a tune on the piano/keyboard or
reading from music notation.

For what it's worth, music is the universal tablature. If you can read the
music: Every Good Boy Does Fine (E G B D F for the 5 lines and F A C E for
the spaces, you only have to figure out (finger out) where the note is
sounded on an instrument.

On the piano ( ETC), the C scale is: C D E F G A B C (alphabetical).
There is no (black) key between E/F and B/C.    Using all 12 notes (+ 5 black
ones) that same pattern of play a note (C) skip a note, play a note (D) skip a
note; play a note (E), play a note(F) skip a note, play a note (G)skip a
note, play a note(A) skip a note, play a note (B), play a note (C) gives the
major scale.

Guitar players know the pattern as play a fret, skip a fret etc. But unlike
the piano, all frets look alike (even with fret markers) whereas the piano
is just easier to see.

Bent notes: If you can identify the C scale on the piano and the blow and
draw notes on the harp. All blow notes are C E G and the draw notes are D F A
B.   Blow No. 1 on C harp is C. Draw No. 1 is D. Look at the piano
keyboard. There is a black note between the C and D. It is C#/Db. That is the bent
note. Blow 2 is E, Draw 2 is G. The bent notes are: F, F#. Blow Hole 3 is G,
Draw Hole 3 is B. The bent notes are Bb, A, Ab.

So what good is this? If you know where to find the bent notes on the
piano, you can match the pitch with your harp so you play your bends precisely on
pitch rather than too high or two low "pitchy." Cheap keyboards are only
$50-$100. The price of a few harps.

The relative minor key of C Major is A Minor and so starting on the 6th
note of the C scale, playing the same exact identical notes gives the A Minor
Scale -- just starting in a different spot and ending 8 notes later.

And if you can plunk out the C scale on the keyboard, you can figure out
all the other keys. Just start on another note and maintain the same pattern.

Knowing how to read notation on a piano does not make it any easier to play
the harmonica because the layout of the harp is different.

You can know that Middle C is the C outside the 5 lines (a space and line
which you have to add in your mind outside the treble) and where to sound it
on a piano.

In order to sound it on a harmonica, you have to know it is the Hole No. 1
Blow on a diatonic and most chromatics.

On a guitar, you can sound it by fretting the 3rd fret on the 5th string or
8th fret on the 6th string because every note (the exact same note; not an
octave higher or lower) can be played in at least two places on a guitar).

I can play a song on the harmonica from harmonica tablature, but if I want
to play the same song on the guitar or piano I'm at a severe disadvantage. I
have to think really hard to convert Blow No. 2 Hole into E and Draw No. 2
into G on the piano or guitar.

With sheet music, I can play them all with no sweat.

By the way, you don't have to be a piano player to use Howard's technique.
You just have to relate the piano keyboard to the C scale. If you can play a
C scale (and the 7 notes + repeat) that goes into it, you can use the
technique.

This is why musicians who study a variety of instruments are required to
study basic piano regardless of their main instrument -- just to get a
handle on how music works in a quick and easy way.

None of this stuff is rocket science, otherwise millions of people would
never have mastered it over the years.


* Howard footnote: Howard said that he discovered overblows out of his
piano background, figuring the same notes on the piano must be on the harmonica.
The harmonica he was working with was in the key of G, hence the
visualizing the key of G   piano in his minds eye. At the time I heard this I was
visualizing a key of C, considering it a "cleaner" key because it has no
flats/sharps -- but if you wanted to add a flat 7 (Bb) it was simple to visualize.

This information has been offered before on Harp List, but it's always
easier to run it again than send everybody off to try to find it in the
archives.

Hope this helps.
Phil





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