Re: [Harp-L] explain positions to beginner

[philharpn@xxxxxxx]

I keep waiting for one of the obvious answers (at least to me). Which is you can't explain positions to THIS beginner. Maybe in a few years. But not now. 


I once had a student who kept complaining that I refused to explain cross harp (aka 2nd position)  to her. After describing it at least three different ways It dawned on me that she was never going to understand what I was talking  about, regardless of how I described it because she didn't have the background. 


Part of this failure to understand  is probably related to reading  music and understanding music theory. 


If you don't understand what a key is or a major scale, more advanced concepts may elude you.


Of course there are composers and performers who get along quite well without reading music. But for most of us mortals, we need all the help we can get -- and knowing a bit of notation (treble clef?) and a little theory -- might be the way.


Start with the basics.











-----Original Message-----
From: Harmonicology [Neil Ashby] <harmonicology@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: harp-l <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sat, Jun 28, 2014 9:38 am
Subject: Re: [Harp-L] explain positions to beginner


Whenever explaining of positions and modes to the beginner then it would be 
useful to distinguish between the role of the Performer and the role of the 
Composer.

The Performer should not really have any need to know the position or mode and 
just plays the notes as written by the Composer.

Of course then most users of harmonica eventually become both Performer and 
Composer but the beginner should start with just Performing and-then move onto 
Composing.

An artist of painting chooses to load some set of colors for his palette based 
on the type of artwork desired; the palette would be full of dark colors for 
some artwork and light colors for other artwork; similarly then the Composer of 
music chooses his "modes" and "positions" based on the desired tone for the 
final composition.

Thus the "modes" and "positions" are tools for the Composer and the beginner 
should generally work on basic harmonica technique well before learning the 
advanced tools of "modes" and "positions".

/Neil (" http://thebuskingproject.com/busker/2025/ ")