1847: Playing in 4th position, you either have to be pretty confident in "owning" the 3 hole inhale second bend or play it up an octave with no bending needed.
My ears tell me Sugar is playing (on the Stones recording if it is indeed in Am) a G harp in 3rd position, ---------- The Iceman
Last Edited by The Iceman on Jun 27, 2015 5:48 PM
@Walter, yep, just scroll and have a quick listen sometimes listen longer than others but depending on what your up to in the song, unfortunately I don't practice enough but usually can mimic many of your riffs :)
Stan: I am glad you enjoy playing along with my songs. My stuff is very simple. I find simple the hardest to do. Playing busy and fast is the easiest playing. You can get away with lots of butchering but with space everything has to be in balance to the groove. The older I get the less notes I play and the simpler my music gets. Groove and walking into the song and painting a picture with music is the goal for me and is the escape from the stresses of my day. Walter ---------- walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year in the Tunnel of Dreams Studio. " life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
yes there is a D minor 7.. my mistake i thought that was already established.
so the over all tonality is still somewhat ambiguous
i had a chance to ask mr. blue point blank which harp he used his answer was also quite vague
his only reply was... on which recording? which would imply, he used a different key harmonica on the stones record as opposed to the song off of blue blazes
which would further imply you are correct in suggesting it could very well be a G harmonica on the stones record.
at this point in time, i am in agreement with you.
i find this to be a very personal and exciting study on such a simple song
Last Edited by 1847 on Jun 28, 2015 8:28 AM
From harp-l Michael Peloquin- The "Pat" he refers to is Pat Misssin
Gotta go with Pat on this one 'Slo Majority of the tune is definitely on a D harp in A minor 3rd position on a G w/o bends just does not get the bite on the b7th & b3rd I think that there is some 3rd pos soloing later in the tune on the extended dance mix though.
Last Edited by tmf714 on Jun 28, 2015 10:42 AM
Playing something wrong is very common thing in a musical world. Sometimes it's memory problem, sometimes it is mistyping problem, sometimes it's lack of ear training. But sometimes "wrong" can be even cooler than right and makes music to evolve. Funny, than the better and the more profesionally you're playing the more wrong sounds out of music. The closer you to a folk musician the more it's ok and even fun. Rather often folk players with diatonic instruments plays tunes with wrong notes and it sounds really cool.
I notice that many people avoid bend notes and either ignore them or replace them. I used to do it myself and find more satisfaction in 'honking' the note while staying true to the melody.
I am in agreement with @Iceman's earlier comment as far as expecting a well known melody or signature line to follow the original. Anything else has the potential to cause me discomfort.
Sugar Blue plays MISS YOU in second position. The vamp is Am-Dm. The head lays out really well in second position so long as you hit the 3 draw half step bend consistently BUT it's very tough to solo in second position because there are so many avoid notes (major thirds and major sixths). One solution is is to play the head on a D harp (second position) but use a C harp (fourth position) to solo. Inexperienced with fourth position? Don't worry about it, just fly around and play because in fourth position played over Aeolean it's almost impossible to hit a bad note. Btw, the head is very tough to play in fourth.
The bridge or turnaroud is: F-Em-D / F-Em-D / E-E E-E These last four hits on E major can be played very effectively on a D harp by playing 1D-4D splits (double stops).
Last Edited by hvyj on Jun 30, 2015 11:30 AM
The two main chords in Miss You are A minor and D minor.
The notes that don't fit are (unbent) Blow 2, 5 and 8, and Draw 3 and 7.
You can *maybe* get away with Blow 2, 5, or 8 over the A minor chord. However, they will sound wrong over the D minor chord - these are the notes that make a chord major and they're just a semitone higher than the notes that make the chord minor, so they clash. . You can bend blow 8 down to fit the chord, but not the the other two.
Draw 3 and 7 are the notes that make an A chord major, and will clash against a minor chord. You can bend Draw 3 down to the minor note, but not Draw 7. Sugar plays it anyway, and everyone seems to let it go, but it does actually sound weird.
By the way, the Stones' 12-inch single has a longer version of his solo (starts about 5:39) :
OK, now I understand your question. Yes, we're talking about C# and F#. And any harp they occur on will sound wrong playing them. But then another key of harp may introduce some other set of "wrong" notes.
One way to choose a harp that will sound right is to pool all the names of the notes in the chords of the tune, and then arrange them in scalewise order. If they match a major scale, you could choose the key of harp that delivers that scale. Or a natural minor harp that matches the same set of notes.
All the time in the world to help inquiring minds; I'm in no danger of melting. =========== Winslow
