RE: [Harp-L] 3rd to 7th in the blues

[Buck Worley <boogalloo@xxxxxxx>]

Just to expand and (hopefully) add some clarity to what you have stated: 
 
In Cross Harp or 2nd position
 
3D bent or flatted by one half step will give you the all important b3rd. I hear so many players that fail to nail this and they wind up playing a perfect 3rd which sounds too "country" for blues in many songs
 
5D is a b7th / pentatonic blues scale. Not a natural 7th like Hohner's "Country Tuned" or Lee Oskar's Melody Maker harps.
 
Bending the 5D will give you a 1/4 tone (interval) below the b7th which is not generally used in western type scales which use only 1/2 or whole step intervals. However, doing this will add a wonderfully expressive "blue note" to what you are doing and is very useful.
Buck
 
> Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2011 08:07:06 -0800
> From: gnarlyheman@xxxxxxxxx
> To: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [Harp-L] 3rd to 7th in the blues
> 
> For all you blues players--
> This 3rds and 7ths thing reminds me of something I do on guitar--let's
> relate it to blues in second position on the diatonic.
> The 3 hole draw and 5 hole draw are the 3rd and 7th of the cross harp
> key--and when the chords change, both those notes can be flatted to produce
> the 7th and 3rd of the straight harp key (which is the next chord in a 12
> bar blues).
> Don't actually flat hole 5 draw tho--it's bad for it 8)
> Just play blow 5 instead.
> Go back to 3 hole draw and 5 hole draw for the cross harp key--
> And when you get to the last 4 bars and want to play the dominant chord (on
> harmonica, it's V of V, since the home key is actually V--it's cross harp),
> the 7th and 3rd are blow 4 and overblow 5--as well as draw bend 2--in fact,
> you can incorporate double draw bend into the first chord--it's the 7--and
> blow 2 into the second chord--it's the 3).
> Note that these intervals are the flat 5 or tritone, and will get you burned
> at the stake in the right part of the world 8)
> G