howlin' madmart
5 posts
Mar 10, 2008
7:15 AM
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I will be jamming with a few mates shortly & one track I will join in with is played in 'A'. So if I choose my 'A' harp (only got A & C) & play in 1st position, I will start with '4 Blow'. My question is... do most of my notes, including a short solo, mainly consist of blow notes ? If so , is there a range of holes I need to include ?
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bluzlvr
15 posts
Mar 10, 2008
12:48 PM
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Go to YouTube and type in Gussow.071 in the search to see Adam Gussow's series of lessons.
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MichaelM
1 post
Mar 10, 2008
5:32 PM
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I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around the difference between straight and cross harp. I have a 'C' harp and if I don't do any bends and stick to just plain blows and draws I'm playing straight harp, correct? Meaning I'm staying in the key of 'C'. And when I learn how to bend notes I will have the ability to play cross harp, or in the key of 'G', right?
It seems like a real simple concept but for some reason its baking my brain.
Michael
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HarpinNinja
12 posts
Mar 10, 2008
5:59 PM
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First position is almost exactly as was mentioned. You're "wailing notes" are the opposite of the cross harp notes, you want to hold just about any blow note (in fact, I think all the blow notes on the harmonica are safe, as I think they are all 1st, 3rd, and 5ths of the C major chord (on a C harp of course).
You however have to be a little more careful of the "wrong" notes. Don't hold the 3 draw too much (and don't bend it, or... double bend it... the half bend is not great when playing straight harp in C major).
The problem with straight harp is that all the blow notes have a different tonality to them than the draw notes. Draw notes are a little stronger on attack, versus the softer blow notes.
-- cross harp without bending --
Cross harp isnt too hard to play without knowing bends, you only miss a couple notes, but you can do a neat "trick" to get around it.
Learn the upper octave first :)
6 hole blow, 6 hole draw (I realize this is like the 3rd double bend, but it sounds good over most progressions). 7 hole blow, 8 draw, 9 draw, 9 blow.
This will sound bluesy to get you started on hearing what it sounds like, and the upper octave is a good thing to learn early to be mixed with some lower stuff.
Then learn the 2 hole draw (I think this was easiest for me), then the 3 hole draw. The 4 hole is important, but the 3 and 2 I think are better to start with and a bit "easier" to get a good sound out of them. Sometimes that 4 hole bend is too quiet.
Good luck!
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MichaelM
3 posts
Mar 11, 2008
11:56 PM
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Thanks for the advice Ninja, didn't help much though. Sorry. I apologize for my misunderstandings because I've just started playing this week.
From playing guitar here is what I know:
In the key of 'C' the scale is C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C and the major chords in 'C' are 'C', 'F' and 'G'.
In the key of 'G' the scale is G-A-B-C-D-E-F#-G and the major chords are 'G', 'C' and 'D'.
On a 'C' harp you have the 'C' scale on holes 4 through 7. You have chords C-Major, G-Major and a D-Minor.
Here is the confusion for me: There is no F# needed to be in the key of 'G' so how is a 'C' harp played in 'G'?
Thanks again,
Michael
Last Edited by on Mar 11, 2008 11:59 PM
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HarpinNinja
15 posts
Mar 12, 2008
11:29 AM
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That is the difference between what is called straight harp and cross harp.
Straight harp is playing the harmonica in the key it was designed for. In this case, C major for a C harmonica. That much you seem to understand, and you are correct from your music theory standpoint.
Cross harp is playing the harmonica a 5th above the designated key. So a C harmonica is played in G. But...
As you've noted there is no F# on the C harmonica.
If you wanted to play in G major, you could do a 2 hole draw bend to get the F#. This is where you "bend" the pitch of the 2 hole down one half step from G to F#. A bend in guitar raises the pitch, a bend in harmonica lowers the pitch (sometimes this causes confusion for new players).
Since Cross harp is used primarily for blues, we don't play it in G major all that much, we play in G minor (sometimes G dorian, which is minor with a major 6th).
Now we have all the notes on our C harp to play in G minor pentatonic, again... almost. We still need to bend the 3 hole draw down half a step, from B to Bb.
It's important you learn the bending techniques if you want to play blues. If you want to play major harmonica, you can get away with never bending, and just always playing in straight harp.
To get the full blues scale in G on your C harmonica, you're going to need to learn three bends (2 hole draw double bend, down a full step, 3 hole half bend, and 4 hole bend). Each one of these will require a slight variation on bending technique, and it takes a lot of practice.
I got the 2 hole draw bend about 2 months after I started playing, and I think its the easiest (to get it to sound properly, 4 hole draw is probably easiest to get a "sound" but its hardest to make it sound good).
I didn't get the 3 hole draw bend down until about 8 months in. After that you're in good shape to play most things you want, and can experiment with other interesting techniques.
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MichaelM
6 posts
Mar 12, 2008
6:12 PM
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Ahhh, ok. That makes more sense. So I was pretty much correct the first time – If you don't learn to bend notes you're limited to the key of the harp, in this case 'C'. Learn to bend the notes and you expand the ability up to 'G'?
One thing that I just noticed in a book I picked up (Idiot's Guide to Playing the Harmonica), they have the 2 Hole double bend as just F. Shouldn't it be F#?
Thanks Ninja.
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Harmonica Slim
17 posts
Mar 13, 2008
6:02 AM
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Michael, you have two bended notes in that hole, halfbend F# and hole stepbend F. Remember the naturalnote beein' G and when you bend on your harp you lower the pitch. Hope this helps
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HarpinNinja
16 posts
Mar 13, 2008
11:44 AM
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double bend on the 2 hold is easier to hit than the half step bend to the F#. It's there but its harder. That's why I say the 2 hole bend is the easiest one to get for blues harmonica.
You just bend it as much as you can and it's there and has lots of edge. Great note.
Glad to help.
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Preston
5 posts
Mar 13, 2008
6:21 PM
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There is an F# at 5 overblow as well. Can't play the Star Spangled Banner in Second Position with out it!
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MichaelM
7 posts
Mar 17, 2008
12:49 PM
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Thanks guys (or girls).
I'm trying to play with a Boss Chromatic tuner to make sure I'm going in the right direction. Funny thing is, when I block the 1 and 3 holes with my fingers the tuner is saying the 2 draw is an F#. I'm pretty sure I'm not bending the note either. Could I have gotten the 2 draw that out of whack by just goofing around? Its hard to draw and I've heard deer grunt a better sound.
I've read in my book that you can file the loose end of the read to make it go sharp again. Anyone have any success doing this?
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Patrick Barker
25 posts
Mar 19, 2008
5:49 PM
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You might want to make sure your tuner is set to 440, which is basically the stnadard tuning. Sometimes if you accidentally press some notes on a tuner it'll change this. Just to make sure you aren't bending at all you might want to open up your jaw while drawing this note and try not you use your fingers to cover up the surrounding holes since this can distance your mouth from the harp and may (although probably not) bend the pitch slightly.
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kudzurunner
3619 posts
Nov 10, 2012
5:27 AM
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This is currently the sixth- or seventh-oldest thread in the archive, and it's the oldest that has more than ten posts. I note that HarpNinja has been a member here from the beginning. Patrick, are you still here? Anybody else in this thread still an active member? bluslvr, you're still here, aren't you?
Last Edited by on Nov 10, 2012 5:28 AM
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jbone
1105 posts
Nov 10, 2012
7:55 AM
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curious. how did a 3 1/2 year old thread come to the top? i'm a current member Adam and was about to reply with my own 1st position experience.
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Thievin' Heathen
71 posts
Nov 10, 2012
7:59 AM
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The original participants in this thread have all gone over to the dark side and you can find them over at www.slidemeister.net
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