Re: [Harp-L] learning to play

["Daniel Perrone" <dany_perrone@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

When learning to play "Mary did you know" for our church Christmas concert I grabbed a bunch of my harps and started trying to play along the backing track. Soon I realized that my A harp would do.  The 3D bend was difficult to get consistently in tune and fast so I cheated, : )  and  retuned my harp to Paddy Richter with a Lee Oskar tool kit. 
Now, the point is I had no clue whatsoever about what position that meant. It was not until it was pointed out to me in the comment section of YouTube that I realized I had been playing in fourth position.  I then went and checked my harp books in the harp positions chart, hum let's see, harp in key of A, played in fourth position is F#, but the backing tracks says the song is in F#minor????. After researching a bit more on the harp-l archives I realized that positions apply for mayor and minor keys.
   So anyways, maybe is good to not focus as much on "positions" and expose the student to different ones early on.

Daniel




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJI77mS-_MM&feature=channel_page