I understand that in the blues you generally play cross harp. I'm wondering if there are any players who played straight harp? Are there any styles of music that use straight harp?
What do you mean by straight harp? Do you mean in the key of the harp? So play in C on a C harp? That's first position and tons of blues players and loads of other styles of music play in that position.
Straight harp aka 1st position is used for blues but it's not as common as cross harp because it's more difficult especially in the middle octave. Blues doesn't typically use a major scale, so 1st position/straight harp notes have a tendency to clash, especially regarding the 7th note of the scale. That's 7 draw in the middle. It's a major 7th in straight harp, and blues will usually use a flat 7th (aka dominant 7th). It's an important note and it sounds bad when you play the wrong one. The 3rd degree of the scale is also often flatted for blues, and that is also difficult in straight harp. It's a 4 overblow in the middle, or a 1 overblow in the low end. In the top it's the relatively easy 8 blow bend. This is largely why 1st position blues is often played on the squeaky end of the harp. Flattening the 5th degree of the scale is another distinction of the blues. It's not done quite as much, and the major 5th is used a lot, but moving from 4th to 5th via the flat 5th (in either direction) is a distinctive blues sound. You can do it in the lower octave by using both bends in hole 2, and in the top it's a blow bend on hole 9. It's the equivalent of wailing on hole 4 draw in cross harp. It's harder in the middle, requires the 5 overblow and doesn't flow as nicely even if you are quite good with the overblow. If you play half-valved harps you can get blow bends down in the middle and low octaves, which can make for smoother flow but that's a whole other area of technique and a different discussion. So straight harp for blues requires quite strong bending skills. And even then it's a bit limiting in that it doesnt flow across the octaves quite as readily as cross harp. It's great fun though. I really love it. I've only been doing it a short while and I keep learning new things about it. It's very distinctive sound in blues.
Straight harp is used a lot for other styles such as folk and pop music. Because it easily delivers a major scale, it's suitable for any music which uses that scale. And that's about where I run out of puff.
Last Edited by SuperBee on Jun 30, 2016 2:10 PM
Superbee is right on. In the blues, 1st position (straight harp) is an advanced position, because it requires good control of bending. The middle octave becomes unplayable for more than a few notes, because it has such a major sound. (After all, the harmonica was designed to have a major sound in that key.)
In blues, the gold standard for 1st position is Sonny's "Trust My Baby":
There's a lot of really tasty licks on the high end, too:
