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beginner forum: for novice and developing blues harp players >
Circle of Fifths/Fourths
Circle of Fifths/Fourths
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chrisjaybecker
2 posts
Feb 07, 2017
10:04 PM
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We probably all know how handy the Circle of Fifths is for finding harp positions, for example going clockwise from C we have C, G, D, A, and E, which just happen to be 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th positions on a C harp. But I just figured out (I'm not saying I'm the first one) that when you go counter-clockwise, i.e. the Circle of Fourths, you can pick a key and figure out which harps play in that key in every position. For example, starting from A, in fourths, we have A, D, G, C, and F, which happen to be the harp keys for 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th positions in the key of A… A harp in A, D harp in A, G harp in A, C harp in A, and F harp in A. It’s all there in The Circle. This works for all 12 positions, but let’s just concentrate on the 5 “Chicago” positions that Little Walter, Junior Wells, and Big Walter used, although, in theory, 6th Position (Locrian) and 12th Position (Lydian) are not impossible since they fit within the 7 Modes... but now my head is starting to hurt.
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SuperBee
4488 posts
Feb 08, 2017
12:38 AM
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thats a good way to do it.
i just learned the location of the tonic note for each position. i mean you do that when you learn to play the position of course. so then its simply a matter of naming the note on that location. if you have a basic understanding of how a major scale works (i.e. whole step whole step half step whole step whole step whole step half Step, as in C D E F G A B C), and you can quickly name each note on a C harp, it becomes a straightforward exercise to work out which harp in which position for a given key
but i think your way is better
12th is just all the way around the clock, so a song in C would play in 12th on a G harp. the reverse of 2nd i suppose you could say
if i was starting out and with the benefit of knowing what i know now, i'd definitely be working with the circle, but after a while you just learn this stuff. sometimes i see those labels with 3 positions identified and i realise that positions 1, 2 and 3 are not something i ever think about because i just know them. not coincidentally they are also the 3 chords in a standard 12 and 8 bar blues progression (whatever 'standard' means)
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