Re: [Harp-L] help with minor positions

[Richard Hunter <turtlehill@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

pdxharpdog@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
<so thought I'd ask the experts. My band does quite a few tunes in A minor, and I've been playing std. 3rd <position on a G harp and want to branch out and learn a new position for some of these songs. Kind of bored with <the same old licks and patterns. Oh Death is one of them, and tunes like Walk On Boy, Death Don't Have No Mercy <etc. I love third position harmonica for minor tunes, but I either need more variety in what I play in third <position of a new position that will sound good but totally different. I always worry that the band mates will <get bored with my chops if all minor tunes sound about the same. 

4th position (A minor on a C harp) and 5th position (E minor on a C harp, A minor on an F harp) are alternatives that might work for you on standard harps.  Both feature a flat 6th and minor 3rd.  Both have significant limitations.  In 5th position, you have to avoid the draw 5 reed, which is a flat 2nd--not very useful in most blues and trad styles--or substitute the overblow on blow 5.  In 4th position, you can only get the tonic note in the lowest octave with a double bend on the draw 3 reed, which as everyone knows is tough to do perfectly in tune.  A problem with both these positions is that the choices of chords are very limited. 
 
If you really want to buff up your minor tunes, I recommend that you get a Natural Minor harp or two.  On A minor tunes you could play either a Lee Oskar NM in A (2nd position is A minor) or E (first position is A minor).  (Lee Oskar names the NMs after the key in 2nd position.)

Either of these will give you a much wider range of minor chords to work with, including minor 7th and 9th chords, and will also allow you to get a lot more mileage out of your 1st and 2nd position licks.  So your bandmates will definitely hear a difference.

I still hear harp players say silly stuff like "it's cheating to use non-standard tunings," notwithstanding the fact that Steve Baker, Brendan Power, Lee Oskar, and myself, to name only a few, none of whom are exactly slackers, have been using non-standard tunings for years.  Any harp player who wishes to make life as difficult as possible for him or herself by avoiding inexpensive and simple solutions to common problems is of course welcome to do so.  But my advice is to try a minor tuned harp.  (And plenty of other non-standard tunings after that, maybe starting with a country tuned harp, one of my all time favorites.)

Regards, Richard Hunter


author, "Jazz Harp" 
latest mp3s and harmonica blog at http://hunterharp.com
Myspace http://myspace.com/richardhunterharp
Vids at http://www.youtube.com/user/lightninrick
more mp3s at http://taxi.com/rhunter
Twitter: lightninrick