[Harp-L] Reading or playing by ear.

[Michael Rubin]

When I read on diatonic live I read intervals.  I decide which position I
want to play and look at the notes as scale degrees.  For example, in the
key of C mjinor G is the fifth note.  When I see a G I read "play a
fifth".  In 5th position the fifth is in 3 draw, 7 draw and 10 blow single
bend.

When I have some time with a piece I work on really knowing the names on
the notes on that particular harp.
Michael Rubin
michaelrubinharmonica.com

On Wed, Dec 21, 2016 at 9:13 AM, Tin Lizzie <TrackHarpL at xxxxx> wrote:

> 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?
>
> ---
> 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?
>
> ---
> 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)
>
>