Re: [Harp-L] 5th Position

["Bill" <bill.eborn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I use 5th for St James Infirmary in my blues set at the moment (Dm on a Bb) 
and i've used it for Summertime now and again.  I've used it for jazz tunes 
more though, I've done Alone Together a fair bit, again in Dm on a Bb which 
is nice as it goes to Gm or 4th position in the bridge. The tricky bit is 
when it goes to D major for the last couple of bars of the A section which 
took a bit of work

I guess one way of thinking about position playing, would be to look at what 
i think of as the default modal scale on the harp and work out how many 
changes you need to play a different scale with a common root.  So to turn 
your 5th position phrygian mode into a dorian you need to sharpen the 2nd 
and the 6th, to make it mixolydian, the 2nd, the 3rd and the 6th for Ionian 
or the major scale, the 2nd, the 3rd, the 6th and the 7th etc.

There's some good exercises you can do moving between them, which is one of 
those bits of practice i should do more of i think - it needs OBs or valving 
or whatever though.  What doesn't is the fifth mode of harmonic minor or 
Spanish Phrygian, play G harmonic minor on a Bb over a D7 chord and you'll 
get my drift