Re: [Harp-L] help with minor positions

[The Iceman <icemanle@xxxxxxx>]

don't do this. It's cheating to use non-standard tunings.


(koff)





-----Original Message-----
From: Richard Hunter <turtlehill@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
 
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


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