Re: more harp stuff



>
> I actually -- just sitting around messing -- ended up playing a whole
> solo in 12th position on an old Fats Domino song. The song is in F and
> the harp was in C, and I was just playing casually (in the car
> actually) and when I got home and put the CD on and thought about what
> I was doing, I realized I'd been playing in 12th.
>
The key of F on a C-harp is 7th position, at least in the circle of fifths
naming convention.  Is it twelfth in the "traditional" convention?  Playing
in either of those positions is quite unusual, though.

> YOu have as many notes from the original scale in that position as you
> do in 2nd, they're just in weird places. I don' tknow if there's any
> REASON to play there though (aside from not having anything other than
> a C-harp in the car :)

Right.  1st position is common because it has a full major scale without
bends.  2nd position has those cool bluesy notes in the draw bends that
sound soooo good.  3rd opens up the minor scale (dorian mode with the
3rd and 7th scale notes flatted).  So does 4th position, with it's blow
chord being the tonic minor, without the root note (on a C-harp, the blow
chord is C-E-G.  4th pos. would be the key of A.  The Aminor chord is
A-C-E-G.)  5th position is a natural for playing in natural minor, with
its flatted 3rd, 6th, and 7th notes.  Each position offers a different
character and different possibilities.  Learning to play all of them is
a challenge I haven't met, yet.

Man!  This horn gives me the blues, sometimes.

George





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