Re: [Harp-L] Playing in majors/minors

["Joe Spiers" <joemopar@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I think I read all the replies, sorry if this repeats what anyone has 
said......

Yes you can buy SP20's in minor tuning, as well as Lee Oskars. They're 
available in natural minor and harmonic minor. You'll probably want Natural 
minor. The notes lay out mostly the same except for the ones that are 
flattened to make it a minor, and it will come as second nature to play one 
if you normally play second position.

Now read closely, this is important.......

Hohner labels their minor keys just like the regular harps, ie an A nat min 
is still an A on the 1 blow. You'd use a Hohner A nat minor to play in E 
minor.

Lee Oskar labels theirs by the crossharp key, ie an A nat min has a D on one 
blow. You would use the LO A nat minor to play in A minor.

So to play in F minor-
You'd want a Bb nat min SP20, or an F nat minor Lee Oskar.

To play a standard tuned harp in F minor, one of the most commonly called 
keys in your band, you'd be looking at using an Eb to play in third 
position. A regular Eb might be a little high pitched for how you want to 
fit in with your band, or it may be exactly what you're looking for. A low 
Eb is available, but might be pretty challenging as well.

To play in fifth you'd be using a Db harp. It still might sound a little 
high, maybe not, depends on your situation. Anyway my point is that you 
might want to get the natural minor harp to play in F minor, to make it easy 
on yourself, making it easier to make good music, or to more easily play in 
the pitch range that your harp would fit in more appropriately. Also one can 
often play minor in second position just fine if you get control of your 
bends, so you should practice that IMO.

To play in D minor, I'd normally just grab a C harp and play in third, or 
you could use a Bb to play in 5th, either which should be easy enough as far 
as stock-harp-playability goes. But you might find you'd like a G nat minor 
SP20 too.





----- Original Message ----- 
From: "todd allen" <soundguyaudition@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Saturday, July 17, 2010 9:51 AM
Subject: [Harp-L] Playing in majors/minors


I'm still having a hard time wrapping my head around what harp to use when 
the
band calls out a song in minor's or major's.For example Ohio by Neil Young 
in D
minor, or Dancing in the moon light by Van the man in F minor. I typically 
go
right to cross harp (2nd position) for most everything we do, if that 
doesn't
sound right I just go through every harp in my case until I find the key 
that's
least offensive. I have looked at circles of fifths and other charts but 
don't
get why they just don't include majors and minors in the typical harmonica
position charts, I guess I just don't get it. do they even relate to the key 
of
harp or is it more about the notes you play?
Todd