[Harp-L] Re: harmonica in B - and sight transposing

[Robert Bonfiglio <bon@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Winslow posted about using a B harmonica to play something a half tone  
higher like in Eb and have it come out in D.  This is what I do and I  
write everything out a half tone higher.  Hearing a note a half tone  
off I can adjust to, but I can not play a chromatic tuned to G.  I  
start blowing when I should draw because the fourth is just to far  
away and I always feel like I am in the wrong hole.

What is so weird is that I have no problem shifting from key to key on  
diatonic!!

But when Winslow said the hard part is playing on a B harmonica  
reading Eb and have it come out in Eb, my head starts to spin.  In  
music school we had to do this stuff all the time and this  
transposition would require reading in alto clef - which brings me  
back to Manhattan School of Music where I was playing in a Early Music  
ensemble, mostly Medieval and Renaissance music and every piece had  
transpositions in weird clefs.  I did real well through the whole  
concert, but the last piece was straight forward in treble clef and I  
couldn't read it because my mind had become a blur of transpositions.

MORAL TO THE STORY: Guitarists like playing in sharp keys like E, A, D  
because of open strings; chromatics love flat keys because legato is  
easier, so use a B harmonica and play in F, Bb and Eb and this will  
sound in E, A and D to please those players of that horrible  
instrument called guitar.

Harmonically yours,

Robert
http://www.robertbonfiglio.com