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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
What are the most used keys?
What are the most used keys?
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Philosofy
392 posts
Jul 19, 2011
11:52 AM
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I'm not in a band, but will attend jam nights. What are the most common harp keys needed to sit in with blues and rock bands?
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Shajan
14 posts
Jul 19, 2011
11:53 AM
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I don't know tbh. But I have always found A and C harmonicas sound the best but I don't know what most bands play with.
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nacoran
4330 posts
Jul 19, 2011
12:13 PM
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Straight from Adam-
FAQ
Of course, you never know when a particular group of musicians will play. You could write down a list of some of the songs you here them play a lot and ask them for the keys for them (or you could post the list here and we could take a shot, depending on if they play them in the original keys.) Try to catch them before or after.
If they give you a list you can figure out the cross harps and have a handy sheet with all the keys to boot. If there is a regular singer songs make get shifted to suit their voice. When I sing I'm usually in Bb. It's the only place in my range where I can choose between a high octave or a low octave and still get all the notes around it.
I recently noticed I can play along with one of my favorite YouTubers on most of her songs with a B harp. You can hear her strain a bit on the high notes and the low notes. It fits her voice. So, if the jam has a regular singer, you could look up all the song keys and find out they've adjusted them all to fit one persons voice.
There is an old thread around somewhere that talked about specific types of music. A lot of fifties pop had piano and just like any other instrument they chose the easy way and played keys with mostly white keys (C and G work well). Horns tend to play in Bb a lot.
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Nate
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earlounge
316 posts
Jul 19, 2011
1:50 PM
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For crossharp I suggest always having C, A, D, F, G (mostly in that order). Then probably Bb, Eb, E, B, Ab, Db, F#.
Everyone will have different opinions on this, but this has been my experience. Beware of guitar players that tune down to Eb or use capos, which will screw up all your plans to be prepared.
You really should have a whole set, because once you start playing in different positions you will need them.
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hvyj
1563 posts
Jul 19, 2011
2:23 PM
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If you carry A, Bb, C, D, Eb, F and G you will be covered for most of the material that you will encounter at most blues jams. If you go to jams or open mics where rock and/or folk is played, you will need to add an E harp.
Those are the 8 most commonly used harps for playing in 1st, 2d and 3rd positions.
Last Edited by on Jul 19, 2011 2:28 PM
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