Re: [Harp-L] Re: When Johnny Comes Marching Home

[Michael Rubin <michaelrubinharmonica@xxxxxxxxx>]

Mike,
I'd say you are correct, mostly blues.  You can use it as a passing tone in
very major music.

It is unusual to hear a major third over a minor chord.  You could be
intentionally dissonant.  I thought it was a big no no until jazz harmonica
player Wim Dijkgraaf told me jazz players often do this.  Perhaps I am
misquoting him.
Michael Rubin
michaelrubinharmonica.com


On Tue, Jun 10, 2014 at 3:23 PM, Mike Price <mikerockin@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> MR wrote* << There are situations where a minor third is played in the
> melody of a major song, but this is not one of them.>> *
>
> This is done in just blues music mainly, right? Also, is the reverse ever
> played as well? That is, does one ever play, on purpose, a major 3rd note
> over a minor cord?
> Mike Price
>
>
> On Jun 10, 2014, at 10:41 AM, Michael Rubin <
> michaelrubinharmonica@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> Neil,
> When you transpose the song to the key of D, it remains a minor song.  The
> notes you are playing are all white notes and therefore are members of the
> D Dorian scale, which is a mode of the C major scale.  Coincidentally,
> there are other D scales that use all of these notes, so this melody is not
> necessarily dorian.  The D aeolian scale has all of these notes as well as
> do others.  For the purpose of this discussion we'll call it dorian.  But
> that does not make it in the key of C.  When using a mode of a major scale,
> the key is now the same name as the new root.  Therefore this song is now
> in the key of D.  Since the third note of D is F#, but you are playing an
> F, you are playing in D minor, because the third note lowered one keyboard
> note is what they call the minor third.  There are situations where a minor
> third is played in the melody of a major song, but this is not one of
> them.  Since the key of D is third position on a C harp, this song is now
> in third position.  Even though D dorian is a mode of C major, the song is
> not in first position.  However, you have now created a very easy way to
> play this song!
> Michael Rubin
> michaelrubinharmonica.com
>
>
> On Tue, Jun 10, 2014 at 8:36 AM, Harmonicology [Neil Ashby] <
> harmonicology@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> That is correct; I caught that (minor issue) while thinking last night
> about transpositions (and adjusted the attached quoted message).
>
> Next step: Why not then Chromatically Transpose from C-minor upward by 2
> semi-tones? Would that be the C-Major Dorian Mode?
>
> C-Minor (Chromatically Transposed):
>
> C  G  C  C  C  D  Eb[D#]  D  Eb[D#], C Bb[A#] Bb[A#], G Bb[A#] Bb[A#].
>
> C-Major (Dorian Mode?):
>
> D   A   D   D   D   E   F  E   F,    D  C  C,   A  C  C.
>
> How would that change the "character" of the tune? Same pattern of
> intervals should have exactly the same character.
>
> /Neil (" http://thebuskingproject.com/busker/2025/ ")
>
> On â6â/â9â/â2014 at 6:33 PM, "Winslow Yerxa" <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>
> wrote:
>
>
> The example that you label as C major is actually C minor.That's
> why it's so tough on a C major diatonic harmonica - Eb, Ab, and Bb
> are all notes that belong to the C minor scale, not the C major
> scale, and hence are not built into a C major diatonic harmonica.
>
> Winslow
>
> ________________________________
>
> From: Harmonicology [Neil Ashby] <harmonicology@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: harp-l <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
> Cc: Winslow Yerxa <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Monday, June 9, 2014 1:40 PM
> Subject: Re: When Johnny Comes Marching Home
>
> Why don't I just figure these things out first because I had not
> previously been transposing between G-minor and the C-Major scales;
> I had probably played "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" from some
> old tabs instead of the real sheet-music and the tabs were not
> correctly transposed (which seems to be quite common).
>
> According to the actual sheet-music:
>
> [Corrected Version]
>
> In G-Minor:
>
> g  d  g  g  g  a  Bb  a  Bb,  g  f  f,  d  f  f.
>
> In C-Minor (Chromatically Transposed):
>
> C  G  C  C  C  D  Eb[D#]  D  Eb[D#], C Bb[A#] Bb[A#], G Bb[A#]
> Bb[A#].
>
> Yup, as Winslow has indicated, that is a rough transposition to C-
> minor.
>
> /Neil (" http://thebuskingproject.com/busker/2025/ ")
>
>
>
>
>