Re: [Harp-L] Finding the correct key of harp to play bluegrass

[Rick Dempster <rickdempster33@xxxxxxxxx>]

That's as good an attempt I've read yet,to define what constitutes
"Bluegrass" as opposed to earlier forms of US rural music.
RD


On 6 April 2014 16:52, eskeene@xxxxxxxx <eskeene@xxxxxxxx> wrote:

> From: bob piscura <bpiscura@xxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: [Harp-L] Finding the correct key of harp to play bluegrass
> To: "harp-l@harp-l org" <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
> Message-ID: <vjhux5ktxqov6ok4hgdd5bbe.1396752080871@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
>
> Oh no....more bluegrass harmonica questions. On our northern migration
> from Florida to
> the mountains of Virginia I came upon a bluegrass station and tried to
> play along. Well
> having a full octaves of harps with me I was only successful in playing
> with one song. It
> seemed to be in d. I was able to get the c harp to sound ok playing in
> third position and
> played the d harp in first position. But the other six songs I was not
> able to get a harp
> to sound good with the music!!!
>
> Are there any rules to do to find the the correct harp ( like going up
> four steps to do
> find the the correct cross harp? Are there a few keys that bluerass is
> performed in?  If
> a banjo is playing in g  What would be a good harp choice?Thanks for the
> guidance.
> BOB PISCURA
>
>
>
>  Because I really like a bluesy sound but still like to get all the notes
> (without  overblowing) I'm really sold on the "circular" tuned harps. I've
> got 'em in almost all keys and I think they are a really good solution to
> the challenges presented playing Bluegrass. They're sold in the "cross"
> key, so if you want to play bluesy or modal in "A", you buy an "A", and you
> can play the whole major scale straight (without bends) in "D". As far as
> what keys Bluegrass is played in, in my musical career, I played fiddle
> with a lot of Bluegrass bands, and I was never asked to play in  F#, G#, or
> C#-aside from that, it all depends on whom you're playing with. A lot of
> Bluegrass banjo tunes were written in "G", but because they like to use a
> lot of relative minors and circle of fifths type progressions as well as
> "double-tonic" modal progressions (Salt Creek for an example), getting
> around them on a Richter tuned harp can be tricky. A lot of "old-time"
> fiddle tunes (which are often inco!
>  rrectly called "Bluegrass" when they are actually just oldtime dance
> tunes) are in A, D, and G. A lot of Bluegrass fiddle tunes (which are more
> for show than dancing) are in "A" but they also show up in G, E, C, Bb, D,
> Dm, Am, and F, so fitting them on a harmonica can be less then
> straightforward. When playing with singers, it really depends on just how
> high they like to pitch their songs. The really traditional players I
> played with would pitch songs in Bb, B, and C that more "city style"
> singers would pitch in G or A.  The general rule in Bluegrass is for the
> instruments and voices to "cut" as much as possible, which usually means
> pitching it as high as possible. The big difference between Bluegrass
> string bands and the country string bands that preceded them is that the
> Bluegrass bands featured instrumental and vocal solos instead of everyone
> playing in unison, and the big reason they could do that was because of the
> introduction of the microphone-until then, everyone ha!
>  d to play as loud as they could at the same time just to have the band
>  heard. BUT even though they had mics (though often only one,
> omnidirectional mic), the sound systems (and recording studios) of those
> days were crude by today's standards. Flatt & Scruggs were known for tuning
> their instruments up by as much as a whole tone just to get more sound out
> of them, and in the days before electronic tuners, bands would just tune
> (and keep tuning) to each other (and when they weren't in tune with each
> other, the engineer would sometimes compensate by adding  a horrendous
> amount of reverb . In addition, some studios sped up recordings to make the
> sound more "exciting" or sometimes to make the band sound a little more
> together. Because of this, a lot of the "classic" (pre-1960) recordings are
> going to be out-of-tune with most out-of -the box harmonicas.
>
>
>
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