[Harp-L] RE: Harp-L Digest, Vol 79, Issue 7

["Ian Cowe" <ian@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Michaels - thanks.  As I said I'm not very good at the technical side of
music, and especially at explaining the little I can work out!  The first
chord of Sweet Georgia Brown is the VI7 (D7 on a C harp in 12th position ie
played in F - thanks Michael P for helping me unravel that), and so it is
the major 3rd of this D7 chord that the CT harp allows, along with the
occasional F root notes (in bars 29 and 32).  As for overblows and
chromatic.....Er, I've found a way of playing SGB on the diatonic without
overblows!  <phew>

Ian


Michael Peloquin said:  Guys, 
I think the real answer is that Sweet Georgia Brown IS in F, although the
tune begins on the VI7 chord, D7. Pretty cool tune as you never even hear
the F chord until the middle and end of the 32 bar progression (bar 13 &
29.)
Positions mean something, but really not that much in the grand scheme of
things... IMHO.
And I agree that country tuning is kind of a give take on this as you really
only need the F# on a C harp for bars 1-4 and 17-20, otherwise the tune is
basically in F with some G7's here and there.
Learn to overblow and/or play it on a chromatic, there are always
compromises on our instrument...

Michael Rubin said:  Ian,
If 5 draw gives you the major third, you are playing in 3rd position, not
12th.  On a country tuned harp, 12th position's root note is 5 draw bent one
half step.  5 draw would be the flat second.

On 3/2/10, Ian Cowe <ian@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Hi John - I'm not very good at the technical side of music, but I'm 
> pretty sure it's 12th position.  The melody is really hard to play in 
> 1st or 2nd, and I can't explain technically why this is, but in 12th 
> it works almost effortlessly.
>
> The raised 5 draw (CT) gives the major third (needed for the first 
> line (4
> bars) of the melody) which can be bent a semitone (for the second line 
> (bars
> 5-8) of the melody).