[Harp-L] RE: Typical keys for blues

["Hellerman, Steven" <shellerman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I most certainly concur w/ you, John, that these are the essential keys (not necessarily in this order) to always have, if one is so limited:  G, A, Bb, C, D, Eb,  F. And, yes, next throw in the E (you'll need it for  "Jumpin' Jack Flash") and Ab. 
 
So now we're up to nine. 
 
Well, I often sit-in w/ a great band that recently changed it's name to I am the Elephant (well, it's the name they came up with; but they are lead by a great guitarist named Sprio Nicolopoulos, maybe the best I've ever played with) who always tune down half a step. Not totally sure what "half a step" means (there's that theory thing again!), but E becomes Eb (so I'm leaning heavy on the Ab with these guys, lot of blues in E that becomes Eb); and A becomes Ab (well now, I better have a Db), and I sometimes need my F# (they must be playing something in Db). 
 
Now, that's eleven! 
 
So just why not just throw in the B? Occasionally someone sometime, somewhere, is going to be playing something in F#; or you might just need some straight harp in B.
 
Yeah, I say: GET ALL TWELVE and have them w/ you. You won't be sorry.
 
SLH  
 
PS: If you can only afford five: A, C, D, F, G. But you'll get left out, at some point. 
 
 
 
Message: 12
Date: Sun, 6 Feb 2011 11:42:15 -0500
From: "John F. Potts" <hvyj@xxxxxxx>
Subject: [Harp-L] Typical keys for blues
To: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
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If a player carries harps in these keys it will cover second and 
third position playing on at least 95% of the tunes that get called 
in blues, rock and R&B:  G, A, Bb, C, D, Eb,  F.

The next harp to add would be E because the key of B does get called 
every now and then (more often in rock or folk than blues) and the 
next harp to get after that would be Ab.

For second and third position playing, if you have these 9 harps, you 
will be covered for 99% of the situations you will encounter playing 
blues, rock and R&B.

If you start using fourth position for minors, these 9 harps will 
still pretty much cover what you need.  Now, if you are going to get 
into using fifth position for minors, you may need additional harps 
in some of the other keys.

But you can get A LOT of mileage from the 9 harps mentioned above.

JP