SuperBee
1148 posts
May 27, 2013
2:58 PM
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I just picked up a hohner country tuned harp. Looking for ideas of how to get into using it.
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timeistight
1238 posts
May 27, 2013
4:07 PM
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Country-tuned harps are most often used to play major-seventh-featuring melodies in second position -- melodies that you'd probably play in first or twelfth on a standard diatonic.
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easyreeder
369 posts
May 27, 2013
4:09 PM
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First you have to get divorced, wreck your pickup truck, and miss the train while trying to get home to see your mama.
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Tweedaddict
45 posts
May 27, 2013
4:13 PM
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@easy
You forgot to mention the dog.
But seriously now...
Country harmonica when done well, well, it's ASS kickin!
Of course, Personally i'd prfer some kinda William Clarke Country, but that's just me.
Superbee, which one did ya get?
and heh, are you in OZ?
Last Edited by Tweedaddict on May 27, 2013 4:15 PM
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easyreeder
370 posts
May 27, 2013
4:19 PM
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@Tweed
The dog died in the pickup wreck. That's a given.
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Tweedaddict
46 posts
May 27, 2013
4:21 PM
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@easy
I know...
but you gotta stretch it man!
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SuperBee
1149 posts
May 27, 2013
4:27 PM
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That's a different kind of country. I do play few numbers from the country repertoire tho, gotta get drunk, lovesick blues, Folsom PB, maybe something else
Tweed, I have a country tuned special 20 in G. And I am in the southernmost part of Australia, Hobart Tasmania.
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GamblersHand
433 posts
May 27, 2013
4:33 PM
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It makes second position more like first, third more like second, and so on.
Try 3rd position on a major key blues and work the blue third of the 5 draw as you would the 3draw in cross harp.
It also makes 5th position easier, as you now don't have the 5 draw "avoid" note as it's now the 2nd of the scale.
4th is probably less useful, as it changes the 6th to major (Dorian) unless you bend.
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Goldbrick
188 posts
May 27, 2013
4:44 PM
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Play the record backwards and your wife comes back, your truck is fixed and your dog is just fine
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SuperBee
1150 posts
May 27, 2013
6:15 PM
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Nice tips GH, thanks!
Yeah I was thinking about third position, noticing I can now play 3rd pos 9thchord tones all the way from 1 blow to 10 blow,
Not sure yet how it impacts on the tongue block stuff I do from habit...45 warble is clearly somewhat different...
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GMaj7
214 posts
May 27, 2013
6:57 PM
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Country tuned works as much or more in a non-country format. I presume it was named because Charlie McCoy used it a lot. It is cool because the 4,5,6 draw give you a D chord which is the V. It seems like it really works well for a lot of jazz standards, Just the Way You Are (Billy Joel), old Hymns (How Great Thou Art), Blue Eyes Cryin' and tonds of other stuff.
The cool thing is you can still hit the standard note on a draw 5 using a half-step bend. (Necessary for songs like City of New Orleans which use both major and minor 7) Love to hear some samples.. Think you are going to like it a lot. .. and if you do it right, your wife and dog will come back to you.. :)
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Greg Jones
16:23 Custom Harmonicas
greg@1623customharmonicas.com
1623customharmonicas.com
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barbequebob
2275 posts
May 28, 2013
8:10 AM
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You can play 2nd postion more like 1st position, plus these harps can be quite useful for doing ballads, jazz (where major 7ths are used quite frequently even while blaying blues in a jazz format), doowop (when I gigged in a band that did a doowop medly of Oh What A Night/Sincerely, what I did was to play plenty of double stops or chords with occasional single note runs when needed, basically mimicking the vocal harmony lines used in those tunes).
You also have a full V chord when playing in 2nd position, and even tho you can overblow to get the major 7th, BUT you cannot overblow or bend for full chords or double stops and here's a huge advantage for using country tuned harps (which, before they started making them a production line model in the mid 80's, when some of us made them ourselves, they were usually known as major 7th harps.
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Sincerely,
Barbeque Bob Maglinte
Boston, MA
http://www.barbequebob.com
CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
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