Greetings friends. My question is, I have been told to play minor keys in the 2nd position by a 20 year Vet., but 3rd seems to work better. What are your thoughts or additional options?
3rd position is awesome-you really have to move up and down the harp resolving on 1draw 4draw even 8draw and bending 2 and 3 draw what makes it great is that can really emphasize draw notes which makes it very bluzy
Personally, i think playing minor in 2d position is usually difficult. Doable, but difficult.
What position works best depends on what KIND of minor is involved. Almost all minor key blues are natural minor. Personally I like playing 5th position for natural minor blues. 3rd works okay, but you have to avoid the major sixth (D7, D3).
You MUST play the minor third on pitch playing in a minor key. The appeal of 3rd, 5th and 4th positions is that they each give you the minor third and minor seventh without having to bend. 4th and 5th also give you the minor sixth without having to bend.
3rd position works especially well for Dorian minors. 4th works for natural minors or harmonic minors. 5th works for natural minors or Dorian minors and is a very flexible position for playing in minor keys.
Of course, some players just use minor tuned harps.
Last Edited by on Dec 19, 2011 9:09 AM
"Of course, some players just use minor tuned harps. "
That's what I do most of the time--since I only really use two minor keys (Em and Am) in my usual line-up, it's just two harps to maintain, and the minor stuff just falls out of them if you hold them out the window while driving.
I like 3rd position a lot too--but I don't do anything with it while playing gigs (on a rack)--I just practice it at this point in my evolutionary journey--sometimes the real wailing notes fall better in 3rd or even 5th--but you just can't beat the minor harp with that ability to play great chords and minor melodies--and they're so easy! ----------
Most folks play in 3rd position. But the obvious choice for cross harp players is to buy minor harps. I prefer 2nd position myself so I have 4 natural minor harps. Todd, what do you tune that 7 draw down to? Killer playing by the way.
Last Edited by on Dec 19, 2011 10:40 AM
hvyi has hit the nail on the head about type of minors. I have always got by with minor tuned harps and had no problems, but lately have been playing Oye como va; I suspect that its a harmonic or dorian minor, because my natural A minor harp just does not sound right, whereas a G harp in third fits beautifully. ---------- Lucky Lester
@didjcripey: I think that tune just has two chords: Am and D. The D chord is the IV chord and is MAJOR. So since third position has a major 6th it fits perfectly. The natural minor harp has a minor 6th that makes the D chord (IV chord) minor which is why it doesn't sound right.
It's in A minor. Am is the relative minor of C major and C is the flat third of the A chord. D major has a C# in its scale, so D major won't work.
Using a G harp gives you A Dorian minor and D Mixolydian. That works because Mixolydian has a flat 7th and the flat 7th of D is C, which also happens to be the flat third of Am. Both modes (A Dorian and D Mixolydian) also have F# which is the major third of D and the major 6th of Am, so a G harp should work very well. (And since G is the flat 7th of Am, it's certainly not harmonic minor which would have a major 7th.)
Btw, I figured this out AFTER you said using a G harp in third position works beautifully. But, in general, I do find that thinking in terms of modes is very helpful for selecting what position to use for playing which tune.
This is one of the reasons I don't use minor tuned harps since the available modes don't lay out in the same patterns as they do on Richter tuned harps. IMHO, the only musical advantage of minor tuned harps is they do give you more chords. But, personally, I don't use chords very much playing harp in minor keys anyway. In general, I think one can play with greater emotional impact on minor key material using note movement rather than chords. But, YMMV.
Btw, I think the Steve Baker video interview about minor key playing is excellent.
Last Edited by on Dec 20, 2011 6:28 AM
