Re: [Harp-L] positions you can use on diatonic

[The Iceman <icemanle@xxxxxxx>]

sez Michael


<<Larry,
This time I disagree with you.  Is the band playing in a key, at least
for a portion of the song?  Are you using a richter diatonic harp?
Then you are playing in a position.  Position are numbered by the
relationship of the key the band is playing in to the name of the harp
as measured by the amount of times moved clockwise in the circle of
fifths.  No amount of saying "I've moved a little past positions" can
change that you play in positions.>>


1. "This time I disagree with you"


uh, (koff) why am I not surprised?? happens so frequently.


2. "No amount of saying "I've moved a little past positions" can
change that you play in positions."
Now you've kinda gone a bit too far telling me what I do. You ain't in my head, brutha, so you don't know how I process.
I don't always play positions. I play notes where they lay. Often I don't think position and when I play this way, it doesn't sound like position. (One of my favorite moments came when I fooled Howard Levy during an Augusta Master Class by doing just this, and he ain't easy to fool, my man).
Then there are times when I consciously do play position in order to get that "positionee harmonicaee" sound.
Anyways, feel free to disagree away. Usually makes for interesting reading.


-----Original Message-----
From: michael rubin <michaelrubinharmonica@xxxxxxxxx>
To: The Iceman <icemanle@xxxxxxx>
Cc: philharpn <philharpn@xxxxxxx>; harp-l <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Fri, Mar 30, 2012 10:46 am
Subject: Re: [Harp-L] positions you can use on diatonic


Larry,
This time I disagree with you.  Is the band playing in a key, at least
for a portion of the song?  Are you using a richter diatonic harp?
Then you are playing in a position.  Position are numbered by the
relationship of the key the band is playing in to the name of the harp
as measured by the amount of times moved clockwise in the circle of
fifths.  No amount of saying "I've moved a little past positions" can
change that you play in positions.

Everyone,
I learned to play in all 12 positions.  There is a video of me playing
at SPAH with Jimi Lee.  I play a blues and change positions every 12
measures.  It is my belief that currently, not every position sounds
good in blues, so it was more of an exercise.  Each position shines in
at least one style of music.   Some people did not like it because of
intonation issues (I definitely should have used an equal tuned harp
and could spend the rest of my life improving my intonation), some
because I was played lots of notes and I am sure some people felt it
an egotistical effort.  I am cool with all the reasons of not liking
it.  What I hope happened is that it broke the spell of "Only Howard
Levy can do that!"  and changed it to "Michael Rubin did that and I
did or didn't like it, but I know I could do it better than HIM!"  and
it encouraged people to learn how.

Because of the way we are rapidly learning about the diatonic I
believe that in the near future most harp players will play in all 12
positions and that players will discover ways to make most positions
shine in most styles.  I give it 25 years, max.  IMO.
Michael Rubin
Michaelrubinharmonica.com
http://youtu.be/aCbDxn5a3xI

On Fri, Mar 30, 2012 at 9:19 AM, The Iceman <icemanle@xxxxxxx> wrote:
> Pretty much depends on the individual.
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> I can, but find certain positions to be not too useful for most scenarios.
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> In a way, I've moved a little past "position" and just go for the notes that I 
need wherever they may live.
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>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: philharpn <philharpn@xxxxxxx>
> To: harp-l <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Fri, Mar 30, 2012 9:57 am
> Subject: [Harp-L] positions you can use on diatonic
>
>
> The common rule used to be that there were 6 positions that you could use on 
the
> diatonic.
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> The rest were not exactly useless, just impossible. Then along came Howard 
Levy,
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> Playing 12 positions on one harp, he made the impossible  commonplace.
>
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> But still, most people cannot play 12 positions or can they?
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