|
Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
The Lazy Man's Intro to 12th Position
The Lazy Man's Intro to 12th Position
Page:
1
Jim Rumbaugh
629 posts
Jan 01, 2012
9:18 AM
|
====== The Lazy Man's Intro to 12th Position =======
I have just got comfortable with 12th position. I want to share what I have learned. I want to share it, because it can actually be easy, and and what I have read has been confusing or harder than it needs to be for a beginner intro.
1)use 5 draw as your root note
2)play the opening riff to the song “My Girl” 5D 6B 6D 7B 8D 9D
Ok, all you lazy men can now take a break, you are through for the day. You have just played the major pentatonic scale in 12th position. Those simple 6 notes will get you through a TON of songs. Well... kinda. You will want to use 2 more notes below, and 3 notes above.
The 2 notes below are : 4B 4D
The 3 notes above are : 9B 10D 10B
The simple riff 4B 4D 5D ,
is the famous Good Morning Riff that Jon Gindick teaches, only up more than an octave in 12th position.
You can also play that up another octave with 7B 8D 9D
So the Lazy Man method for 12th position, is to stick with these notes:
4B 4D ..... 5D 6B 6D 7B 8D 9D ... 9B 10D 10B
Notice how I left some space between the bottom 2 notes and the top 2 notes so you could visually see the main octave and the top and bottom extra notes. Practice playing the main scale, then add a few of the upper notes, then a few of the lower notes.
=========== where and how to use 12th position =============
I call 12th position “reverse cross harp”. To play the key of C grab a G harp. That's just the opposite of cross harp. You count down 4 scale tones (C,B,A,G), or you can count up 5 scale tones (C,D,E,F,G)
I know somebody will want a chart, so here's a short chart.
If the song is in:
C ... grab a G
D ... grab a A
E ... grab a B
F ... grab a C
G ... grab a D
A ... grab a E
Hint: All you cross harp players can see from the above list, there's finally a place to use that key of E and B harp .
Here are some general guidelines for a Lazy Man approach to 12th
1)play tunes that use major pentatonic scales. When you get to be a hot shot, you can play a full major scale, minor, scales, and blues scales, but if you try all that stuff now, you will probably get frustrated and just go back to cross harp.
2)Forget about holes 1,2, and 3. Like above in #1, sure you can play those holes, but hold off until you have the top 7 mastered..
3)This is a great position for those “not blues” songs from the 30's,40's 50's etc. A tune like “All of Me”, or “Georgia” is fun to noodle on. Especially “Georgia”. You can find all the notes in 12th position without bending. You will have to add the rarely used 7 Draw, but that's what makes 12th so cool.
4)Some melodies that are hard to do in 1st position because you need a 3 draw bent, are easy in 12th, because you have the 4 Draw and 4 Blow notes below the root note of 5 Draw. I learned a lot of tunes from a guy that played only 1st position and did not bend notes. There were some songs where he would say,”That note just isn't there”. I bet he would've found it in 12th position.
5)If you try to play the regular major scale without special techniques, the 4th scale note is missing. That's the FA in Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So, La, Ti, Do. That's why you can't play all melodies in 12th.
6)The 12th position is missing the 4th scale note of the major scale, but it does have the 7th. That's the TI in Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So, La, Ti, Do. 2nd position does not have the TI note. So you may be able to do some melodies in 12th that you can not do in 2nd
===================================================
This lesson is a preview of what (and how) I will teach at Harmonicollege, March 24th 2012 in Huntington, WV. More details will come soon.
----------
theharmonicaclub.com (of Huntington, WV)
Last Edited by on Jan 01, 2012 1:53 PM
|
mikolune
95 posts
Jan 01, 2012
9:26 AM
|
All, right, me gonna start learning 12th pos now! Thanks, that was motivating :)
Edit to say: Wow: Amazing Grace fits perfectly!
Last Edited by on Jan 01, 2012 10:47 AM
|
oldwailer
1811 posts
Jan 01, 2012
10:45 AM
|
I've been working on this for a while now--and it's one of my resolutions to learn 12th this year--so the guru has appeared for me--thank you Jim!
----------
Oldwailer's Web Site
Always be yourself--unless you suck. . .
-Joss Whedon
|
eharp
1641 posts
Jan 01, 2012
10:53 AM
|
damn!
i love it when stuff is clearly and simply explained!
|
Pistolcat
90 posts
Jan 01, 2012
11:37 AM
|
Nice thread!
As hvyj said in an earlier thread about 12th position melodies: There's a lot in common with 3rd position so if your proficient in either it's nice to compare the blow/draw patterns when embarking.
----------
Pistolkatt - Pistolkatts youtube
|
digitalshrub
67 posts
Aug 31, 2018
4:07 PM
|
“5)If you try to play the regular major scale without special techniques, the 4th scale note is missing. That's the FA in Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So, La, Ti, Do. That's why you can't play all melodies in 12th”
Actually, this is only true if you do indeed ignore holes 1-3. Otherwise, you can get the fourth scale degree in 12th position by utilizing the 3 draw half-step bend. It’s true that this note isn’t attainable in the middle octave without overblowing.
I realize this thread is quite old, but I stumbled across it while looking for words of wisdom regarding 12th position, so I thought I’d chime in with this minor amendment in case it’s helpful to anybody else.
|
HoundogT18
3 posts
Aug 31, 2018
9:02 PM
|
I didn't realize there was a 12th position! I've been playing a long time but getting by on 4 positions -
1st straight major key C > C
2nd cross or blues scale C > G
3rd minor scale C > Dmin
4th relative minor C > Amin
these actually cover all the songs I play but if there's 5,6,7,8,9,10 and 11 that I don't know about could someone put me right?
|
SweetBlood
79 posts
Aug 31, 2018
9:12 PM
|
@Houndog yes there are positions 1 through 12. They are number according to the circle of fifths. For example on a "C" harmonica:
1st C then up a fifth to;
2nd G up a fifth to;
3rd D and so on.
There are a couple of fairly recent threads that address this that should not be too difficult to find.
Also to the resurrector of this thread. Check out Chris Michalek's videos on youtube. He did some good lessons on this, as well as other less common positions.
|
Post a Message
|
