Re: [Harp-L] Circle of Fifths (Circle of Fourths) and Positions

[Music Cal <macaroni9999@xxxxxxxxx>]

The circle of fifths is a topic that comes up in music frequently. I have
never found a use for it. Have any of you? (Reading music notation is not
my focus. Not presently.)


On Tue, Dec 17, 2013 at 12:36 PM, harp <harp@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Hi Doug,
>
> I saw posts about organizing harps this way from several people, so I am
> giving it a try.  I have not really put my mind to the Circle yet.  Long
> story - I played piano and Spanish classical guitar years ago - very
> technical approach and read music 100% of the time, but never played what
> I felt.  Got close with Spanish guitar, but never was technically good
> enough to just lose myself in the music.  When I started playing blues
> harp, I swore I would not look at a single piece of theory - I would just
> play what I felt.  The approach has been much more satisfying (much
> yielded better results too!).  But as I get deeper into playing different
> positions and visualizing in my mind the tonal relationships, I keep
> coming back to the Circle.  There is a lot of Œthere¹ there.
>
> Anyway, this is a very long-winded way of asking you why you arrange your
> harps that way.  Is it because you can quickly step through different
> positions as you work on figuring out a tune?  Is it because if you are
> playing harp you ask for the key and then grab the harp next door for
> second position blues?  Just curious why this arrangement works for you.
> I have been choosing a key and then mentally calculating or consulting a
> Circle before grabbing a harp.
>
> Thanks,
> Brad
>
> On 12/17/13, 12:15 PM, "Doug Schroer" <dougharps@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> >Certainly it can be useful to have a Circle of Fifths for reference.
> >
> >However, years ago I started arranging my harps in order of the Circle of
> >Fifths, and without any mnemonics or deliberate effort I soon had
> >memorized
> >the Circle of Fifths.  I still have them organized this way.
> >
> >It was an easy way to commit a lot of theory to memory.
>
>
>