geordiebluesman
550 posts
Feb 26, 2012
3:38 AM
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Hi guys, i was jaming with a more experienced harp buddy on thursday night and i made a bit of a discovery.
I have been getting very frustrated with my playing lately and my habit of falling into ingrained licks and runs and it was to my ears the same old story untill we played to a track in D.
I grabed a G harp and thought that Lee had done the same but his playing sounded right and mine kept going out of tune with the backing track which i did'nt understand untill he pointed out that the track was in fact in D minor and he was playing a C harp in 3rd position.
Well i was intreagued and grabed a C harp and found that i had to play different licks coz my ingrained licks would'nt work!. This was a real revelation because i finaly started to get what playing in another position actually means and it stoped me from playing the same old crap, but best of all i mostly instinctively knew where to go on the harp to sound right and i was forced to venture up past hole 6!. It's not much i know but it felt like a real moment to me, i'm off now to play some minor key backing tracks and see where it takes me.
Last Edited by on Feb 26, 2012 3:39 AM
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Leatherlips
35 posts
Feb 26, 2012
12:06 PM
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Good move mate. Not only will you want to play heaps of top end, but tongue block the bottom end as well. It's one of the most versatile positions there is.
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Pistolcat
167 posts
Feb 26, 2012
4:55 AM
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Great man! I had the same ... Well epiphany is a strong word but I got really opened up to positional playing by playing summertime in third. Just noodling in different positions will get you far too, I've then noticed. Try out summertime man! Get that sweet backing track from jazzbacks.com for a measly £3. Check my yt and bump my view counter while you're at it :) I was just improvising on the spot around the melody line... if you can't tell :)
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Pistolkatt - Pistolkatts youtube
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ReedSqueal
251 posts
Feb 26, 2012
12:55 PM
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If my ear is not mistaken (I have been experimenting with this lately) playing to a minor that you use a lot of bent draws at least on the low end, and octaves - sounds great!
I have very little, if any, knowledge yet of musical theory but when I grab a key below a minor tune, I can make it work.
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Go ahead and play the blues if it'll make you happy.
-Dan Castellaneta
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jbone
804 posts
Feb 26, 2012
8:55 AM
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one of the most huge improvements to my playing came when i finally "got" 3rd position for the first time. it was "the work song", william clarke's version off "serious intentions". not tyhat i could play it and still can't go note for note but it opened up my mind.
first song i actually played in 3rd was a james cotton "23 hours too long" thing. the rest as they say is history.
the very cool thing to me about 3rd is the ability to use ALL of a harp if you do tb octaves, blocking the middle 2 and drawing/blowing the outer 2 holes. of course covering 4 holes. moving this up and down the harp gives you all 10 holes to work with.
of course the so-very-lonesome tone of a minor key is also in its way hypnotic and gripping.
i have found that 3rd has re-placed or is at least an option on a lot of material i used to do in 2nd. and once i began to really work with 3rd i found myself going back to 1st position with a new and bigger view of it.
once you get the hang of 3rd on a diatonic, get a chromatic and really blow your mind!
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http://www.reverbnation.com/jawboneandjolene
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oldwailer
1856 posts
Feb 26, 2012
11:57 AM
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3rd is really cool for many things--I've been doing a little work on 12th position lately--and it just seems to slide over into 3rd a lot.
If I just think of the melody to "Summertime," "St. James Infirmary," or "Scarborough Fair" the tune just comes rolling out in third. If I think the melody to "Georgia," it just rolls on out in 12th position. . .
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Oldwailer's Web Site
Always be yourself--unless you suck. . .
-Joss Whedon
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geordiebluesman
551 posts
Feb 27, 2012
11:16 PM
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Thanks for the feedback chaps, i can hear the sound of the doors of opertunity opening!
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garry
178 posts
Feb 28, 2012
4:42 PM
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my band plays several Phish tunes, and several of them (Sand, and Birds Of A Feather) work out great in 3rd.
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