[Harp-L] Reading or playing by ear.

[Tin Lizzie]

So, here is my nuts-and-bolts question, posed two ways, about reading music when playing diatonic harmonica (or a chromatic harmonica in a key other than C).

Scenario 1:

Suppose a piece of music is in the key of C minor, and you have elected to play an Ab harp in 5th position.  You look at the music, and there at the beginning of each line is the treble clef, followed by three “b” (flat) signs in the appropriate positions.  The first note of the song appears as a dot or oval on the middle line of the staff, and it has the “natural” symbol in front of it.  Quickly, now, which chamber and which breath direction?

Quickly, now, what if, instead, you were playing a Bb harp in 3rd position?

Quickly, now, what if you were playing an F harp in 2nd position?

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Scenario 2:

You are Howard Levy.  When you play, you visualize the piano keyboard.  Just now you are playing a song using an A harp.  You are about to play a brilliant, jazzy, improvised phrase, and you decide to begin the phrase with a 5-overblow.  Quickly, now -- the song is up-tempo -- what key (note) on the piano do you see in your mind’s eye?

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I understand that for Bb instruments (e.g. trumpet, clarinet), the printed part for an ensemble piece is depicted as being in a different key than the parts printed for C instruments, so that the notes come out right without the musician having to transpose everything in real time.  For you studio players who read music, do the people who call you in for the gig provide this service for harps that are not in the key of C?

It seems to me that when playing a harp in any key other than C, and reading music while you do so, you not only have to be able to read music in the conventional way, you also have to be able to transpose it, at speed, so that the notes come out of your non-C harp -- and there are 11 choices -- at the correct pitch.  That seems like a huge addition to the basic skill of reading music.  Did you just bite down and learn how to do that, too?  Or am I missing something?

Tin Lizzie (splashing in the ocean, swimmin’ in the C)