kham
6 posts
Jul 01, 2014
5:18 PM
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If I am playing this song which is in b minor, what key harp can I play it in 2nd position?
Anybody have any versions of this to post?
Much appreciated.
Kevin
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timeistight
1606 posts
Jul 01, 2014
5:24 PM
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You need an E harmonica to play B minor in second. Be careful not to play 3 draw unbent or 7 draw.
Here's Paul Butterfield playing in A minor, third position on a G harp second position on a D harp (probably):
Or try it on an A harmonica (third position) or even a G (fifth position).
Last Edited by timeistight on Jul 01, 2014 8:11 PM
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1847
1920 posts
Jul 01, 2014
7:40 PM
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it sounds to me like paul is playing in crossharp
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i get a lot of request when i play my harmonica
"but i play it anyway"
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timeistight
1608 posts
Jul 01, 2014
8:13 PM
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"it sounds to me like paul is playing in crossharp"
I just listened to it again and I think you're right: it sounds like second position, not third.
Even better example for kham's question then.
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Wendell
28 posts
Jul 02, 2014
4:17 AM
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Third postion, A harp in B minor
Last Edited by Wendell on Jul 02, 2014 1:06 PM
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1847
1922 posts
Jul 02, 2014
7:56 AM
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ted, i think that was some of your best playing on that track. sounded better to me than butterfield's playing on that track.
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i get a lot of request when i play my harmonica
"but i play it anyway"
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1847
1923 posts
Jul 02, 2014
7:57 AM
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hey what happened to the clip?
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i get a lot of request when i play my harmonica
"but i play it anyway"
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kudzurunner
4762 posts
Jul 02, 2014
8:34 AM
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I'm playing an A harp third position here:
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FatJesus
54 posts
Jul 02, 2014
11:13 AM
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Adam, I fixed your band name. Because this one is clearly by The New Delta Jukes & Some Guy Dancing In Front Of Us Until He Realizes He's On Camera.
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Ugly Bones Ryan
97 posts
Jul 02, 2014
7:13 PM
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I've found it sounds better on a key of A harp in third position. Then you can move to a second position minor easily when it the song moves from the one to the four.
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Ted Burke
53 posts
Jul 02, 2014
9:16 PM
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thanks for the kind words, 1847
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jnorem
349 posts
Jul 02, 2014
9:40 PM
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I know I keep banging on about 5th position playing, but it would be perfect for a minor key song like that, with the flatted 6th in the turnaround. You'd want a G harp for that.
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Call me J
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BronzeWailer
1331 posts
Jul 03, 2014
1:03 AM
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Here's a version we did awhile back. Just recorded off a camera. Again, A harp in 3rd.
Thrill is Gone
BronzeWailer's YouTube
Last Edited by BronzeWailer on Jul 03, 2014 1:09 AM
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bigd
539 posts
Jul 03, 2014
7:53 AM
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Why not just play 2nd and 3rd interchangeably as you feel it. Obviously this one is unrehearsed with a couple of guests in one of my bands. Start in 3rd -then 2nd later- then 3rd, blah, blah, blah...Just having fun!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mg_COHPGung&list=PLNGdyawQqxhQbVf700UP9kJg6Lo2pppAR&feature=share&index=5
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Facebook
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bigd
540 posts
Jul 03, 2014
7:55 AM
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Facebook
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5F6H
1806 posts
Jul 03, 2014
8:19 AM
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Very nice Dennis!
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www.myspace.com/markburness
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Mighty Slim
17 posts
Jul 03, 2014
8:26 AM
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I write to raise the (I realize unlikely) possibility that Butter is playing "The Thrill is Gone" in second position on a natural minor tuned harp. Here is my thinking.
In watching the video, it does not look like third position playing to me because he seems to be playing down at the low end of the harp, and does not seem to be playing in the middle octave where the notes he plays would be if he was in third. This is just how it looks to me, and of course I could be wrong.
If he played in second, then he hit that bent flatted third perfectly every time he went there, at least to my ear, without ever sliding a bit up or down to it, and he used that note a lot. He was a great great player and maybe this was no issue for him, but it sure is for me when I try to play along in second.
But when I play along on my Lee Oskar natural minor tuned harp, that flatted third is built in so that I hit it perfectly every time. And with that harp, I can play that main riff he uses with relative ease, and sound a bit like Butter. I have not tried to reproduce the piece note for note, so have not done the work (as Pat Missan or someone might do) to see if any of the licks or runs that he plays cannot be played on a natural minor tuned harp, or could only be played in third or second on a regular tuned diatonic. So I make no scientific claim that it had to be a harp tuned this way or that. I just find that it is so much easier to play the parts I do try to copy with the minor tuned harp that it raises the question whether Butter did that.
I do not know when the Youtube video of Butter's "Thrill" was recorded, but it looks like the late 70s or early 80s, and Paul died in 1987, so we know it was before then. I do not know when natural minor tuned harps first became commercially available from Hohner (it looks to me like a Hohner harp Butter is playing based on what looks to me like a wood comb) and I realize that it is probable that Butter's recording predates that time.
But I have read that some players experimented with home-made special tunings going back decades (Al Wilson of Canned Heat used one per Pat Missan's website on "On The Road Again"). So I just wonder if it is possible that Butter made or had made or someone sent him a natural minor tuned harp to try out, or whatever, and he used it on this recording.
It just seems to me so much easier to play his arrangement of the tune cleanly with that built in flatted third, I had to wonder whether that was how Butter did it.
Just exploring the possibilities. Not claiming any special knowledge or insight.
Mighty Slim
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5F6H
1807 posts
Jul 03, 2014
8:31 AM
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No harp on this version...but may be of interest anyway...
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www.myspace.com/markburness
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bonedog569
918 posts
Jul 03, 2014
9:00 AM
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I play this in second all the time. I'll see if I've got a file somewhere.
FWIW-IMO this is the worst Butterfield playing I've ever seen or heard - and I'm a huge Butter fan.
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bonedog569
919 posts
Jul 03, 2014
9:52 AM
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I trimmed this to the second half or so - with most of the harp , and some great guitar by Doug Steigerwald. Norm DeCarlo drums, Tom Bowers bass
Last Edited by bonedog569 on Jul 03, 2014 9:53 AM
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