[Harp-L] Learn 6 positions first year

["John F. Potts" <hvyj@xxxxxxx>]

Robert,

I think it absolutely makes sense to teach a beginner multiple  
positions.  Playing in multiple positions is nothing different than  
playing the instrument in multiple keys, which is something beginners  
on other instruments do all the time as a matter of course.  The  
worst that can happen is that the student will start thinking like a  
musician instead of thinking like a harmonica player.

There are multiple advantages to learning multiple positions at an  
early stage, not the least of which is learning to get around on the  
instrument, what notes are found where, understanding the  
relationships between relative majors and minors, learning common  
breath patterns that apply to different scales in different keys,  
getting comfortable playing the whole harp, and being able to handle  
a wider variety of material. Not to mention that the the blues scale  
and minor pentatonic scale are most easily learned/played in third  
position without having to learn to intonate bends--IMHO, proper  
intonation can be more effectively taught after the beginner learns  
what these scales are supposed to sound like by learning them in  
third before having to learn to intonate in second.

So many instructional materials only deal with first, second and  
third position or treat 4th 5th and 12th positions very briefly  
characterizing them as "advanced" and "rarely used" which is B.S.   
None of these positions is any more difficult to learn than another.   
For example, the skill set for playing 5th is IDENTICAL to the skill  
set for playing 2d.  The only difference is that a player can't go  
around bending randomly in 5th like so many tend to do in 2d.  But  
learning a little bending discipline is by no means a bad thing. It  
gets the beginner playing NOTES instead of holes and bends.

So, yeah, I'd start a beginner out learning the do-re-mi scale in  
first position, then move him to third position and then to second at  
the very earliest stages of instruction. Then, they already have the  
skill sets to eventually move on to 4th (which is essentially similar  
to 1st, 5th which is like 2d and 12th which is like 3rd).  By moving  
the player around between 1st, 3rd and 2d at the very outset the  
concept of multiple position playing is learned early and the student  
won't be intimated moving on to 4th, 5th and 12th as he or she  
progresses. It would be teaching them to play the harmonica as a  
musical instrument which, after all, is what it is, isn't it?


JP