[Harp-L] Tab for Harmonica

["Aongus Mac Cana" <amaccana@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Mr Deifik,
Your mail on tab is of interest to me because at my advanced age I am still
trying to figure out what my chip is doing when I attempt to pick up a tune.

I learned to play - after a fashion - sixty odd years ago purely by ear and
in the process  picked up (unconsciously) the bad habit of transcribing
everything into the key of the instrument I happened to have in my mouth.
However by dint of playing along with a group of 'traditional musicioners' I
am gradually weaning myself from the first position
I have to say that I find conventional harmonica tab (Blow 3, Draw 4and all
that kind of stuff) pretty unhelpful as who can read those numbers when the
mouth organ is in your gob? 
I find the banjo and fiddle tab used by my musical colleagues "ABBA GCD" and
so on easier to follow once I have got a handle on the major scale of the
instrument. Mostly I still try to pick up a tune strictly by ear, but use
the tab for "forensic dissection" of the bar or run I am having difficulty
with.
Having learned to touch type at an advanced age I thought I could use the
experience to learn how to read music, but find that I am so ingrained in
playing by ear that I would have to totally deconstruct everything I am
doing to become a sight reader. I don't think life is going to be long
enough for that particular exercise.
Beannachtai
Aongus Mac Cana