Re: [Harp-L] Reading Music, Different Key Harps (was "Re: A couple questions from a beginner")

David Payne <dmatthew@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> · Thu, 19 Nov 2009 08:08:46 -0800 (PST)

I never tried to read music with diatonics, just chromatics. If I were going to try to do this... there's a couple ways I can think of one. One is Winslow's way. The other is:

Way 2: Change the music. Like when I was in band, there was all this F instruments, Bb instruments, etc. stuff, like if the music is written in E, X instrument will play it in Gb or whatever it is. 
Thus, if you applied this to music, you'd take a piece of music, transpose it all into C and play it like you would on a C diatonic, only the output key would be different. Say you're music was in A. You transpose it to C and then play it on an A harmonica. You read the music in C, but the output is in A. If you have a finite number of numbers you want to do, that might be a good idea. If you're playing a new song every day, probably not.  

It's going to be much simpler, anyway you look at it, to play a chromatic if you are reading music. Instead of 12 harmonicas for all these keys, you could have three chromatics and play in all keys with a lot less effort. I'm leaving out a lot of flat keys, cause I rarely play any flat keys besides F... 
This is just an Example
Chromatic C: Am and C scales already there push button in once for F, G, E minor, C minor, hold button in for C# and B minor.
Chromatic D: D and Bm scales already there, push button in once for A and F# minor, D minor, hold button in for D# and G minor
Chromatic E: E and C# minor scales already there, push button in once for B and G# minor, E minor, hold button in for E# and D minor. 

The holding the button in is kind of difficult to read music with, cause you have to think D# isn't gonna look the same as Eb, for instance. But still, with three chromatics and memorizing three positions, you've got C, F, G, D, A, E, B major, on the minors you have Am, Em, Cm, Bm, F#m, Dm, Em, C#m G#m,  

So with three chromatics, and pushing in the button only once per octave, we have scales of 16 keys. Imagine what you could do if you pushed the button in twice. 

Dave
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----- Original Message ----
From: Winslow Yerxa <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>
To: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Wed, November 18, 2009 6:27:30 PM
Subject: Re: [Harp-L] Reading Music, Different Key Harps (was "Re: A couple questions from a beginner")

Another approach is to first identify which harp most closely matches the notes required, then use what I call portable relationships and the home-note approach.

For this to work, it helps if you first learn to read on a C harmonica. When you do this, all the notes are in the same place on the written music staff and on the harmonica, no matter what position you're playing. 

When you absorb these two sets of relationships, you have a set of reference points. If you change key of harmonica, you can just slide the reference points (and all the relationships that go with them) up or down the music staff. That's the portable relationships part of the approach.

If you can read on a C harp and you now have to read on an A harp, you just slide everything down two notches on the staff. For instance, Blow 4 moves from the thid space on the staff down to the second space.Draw 4 moves from the fourth line to the third line. Draw 2 moves from the second line to the first line. And so on.

Similarly, reading on harps in Low F, Low F#,  A, Eb, E, and High G and now become merely a matter of moving up down either one or two spaces. Everything that was one a space before is still on a space, and everything that was on a line before is still on a line.

Other keys of harp will swap lines and spaces. For instance, let's say you want to read on a Bb harp instead of on a C. Everything that was on a space is now on a line, and vice versa, and everything moves down one step on the staff. Blow 4 is on the third line instead of the third space. On a D harp, lines and spaces swap places, and everything is now one step higher on the staff - the home note is now the fourth line isntead of the third space. You can use this approach to read on Low Eb, Low E, G, Bb, B, Db, D, F and F# harmonicas.

Still, that's easier said than done. What about some reference points to put it all in focus?

That's where the home note part of the approach comes along. The home note is a refence point from which radiate all the musical relationships built into the scale, the harp, and the position.

You home note is the home note of the key of the music and also its location on the harmonica. If you know positions, you also know that this is the home note of the position.

For instance, let's say the tune is in G and all the notes in the tune fit the G major scale, except that F# never occurs. So this means that either a G harp or a C harp might work. In a situation such as this, with enough experience you'll be able to evaulate which choice is best suited (for instance, which requires the fewest bends, or offers the most expressive bends; which one allows chords that fit the underlying harmony, or makes the licks sound the coolest, etc.)

Now that you know the key (G), you know that the home note on the treble staff will either be the G on the second line, or the G on the space above the top line.

Now, where is your home note on the harmonica?

If you choose a C harp, you know you're in second position. So your home note will be either Draw 2 (second-line G) or Blow 6 (space above the top line). You know that the four draw notes above Draw  - B, D, F, and A - will all be on lines. The notes in between -  the draw bend A and the blow notes C, E, and G - will all be on spaces. Yiou can map the notes below Draw 2 relative to Draw 2, and can map otehr notes in relations to Blow 6, or even to the highest home note in Blow 9. The better you know second position, the easier this is. 

If you choose a G harp, you're in first position and your home note will be either Blow 4 (second line of the staff) or Blow 7 (space above the top line). From Blow 4 on the second line, the next two blow notes (B, D) will be on the lines above, while the blow note after that will be on the space above the staff. Draw notes A, C, and E will all be on lines between the blow notes. Again, the better you know first position, the easier it will be to fill in the remaining parts of the map.

This works for me. But then I'm an egghead. 

Winslow Yerxa

Author, Harmonica For Dummies ISBN 978-0-470-33729-5

--- On Wed, 11/18/09, John F. Potts <hvyj@xxxxxxx> wrote:

From: John F. Potts <hvyj@xxxxxxx>
Subject: [Harp-L] Reading Music, Different Key Harps (was "Re: A couple questions from a beginner")
To: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
Date: Wednesday, November 18, 2009, 12:03 PM

Elizabeth,

I'm not a professional, I'm self taught, have no formal music training and I don't sight read, although I can make sense of sheet music if given a little time to look at it.

When i've had to work from a chart, I get the sheet music ahead of time.  I determine what key the music is in (from the key signature) and then i convert each note to the corresponding degree of the scale  (1, flat 3, 5, flat 7, etc.) and i write that above each note.  Then i select a position that gives me a mode where i can play those notes on that harmonica  using the available bends as necessary (i don't OB). Sometimes i need to use more than one harmonica for different parts of a particular tune.

So...thinking in terms of how the notes on the staff correspond to the degrees of the scale is how I do it.  This is also how i learn different positions (by figuring out which hole of the harmonica corresponds to which degree of the scale in which position).  If, for some reason, i want to transpose (change keys), i just change which harmonica i use, but I play it in the same position as I was using to play in the key in which the music is written.

I'm sure this is not what they teach a Juilliard or Berklee, but it works for me.

FWIW,

JP
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