Minor key songs
I am wondering about minor key songs and how to choose a harp to play with them. Say a song in A minor, it certainly does not seem to follow the same pattern as A -D or is it? If a song is in A minor should the choice of harp simply be D minor? Seems way to simple! Is there a "rule of thumb" for choosing the correct harp for a minor key?
Hello David,
First I'd like to say that your website and the Lessons are outstanding.... Never have I found so much relevant and use full information anywhere and also the way you have designed your lessons are just great... If someone cannot learn with your method of teaching then I can only say that they are extremely musically challenged!!
I wish I had found your site when I first started to learn the Harmonica... I feel now I wasted a lot of time learning alot of wrong things I must unlearn now!! anyway its always better late than never!!.
When I first found out about positions I took a long time to understand what it was all about... Then I used to carry 2 printed pages to look up which harp to use when I knew the key the band was playing in and what key the band should play in if I wanted to use a particular harp (so 2 pages) etc... but i like things simple so I came up with a simple chart that can be used two ways. I drew it on a cardboard and cut it out... Today I managed to draw it roughly using MSPaint so that I could share it will you and the members of bluesharmonica.com.
I will email it to you if you think its use full and concise then please put it up on your site for people to print it and use it... I hope someone will do it with a better software so that the printout will be more accurate and look better!!
David... Please let me know how I can send it to you!!
Glad you're enjoying the site. Sure, send me an email through the "Contact Us" link and select "General Blues Harmonica Questions" and I'll send you an email address that you can use to send me the attachment.
I've placed your chart up at http://www.bluesharmonica.com/lessons/understanding_position_playing for a limited time. Thanks for providing this to the other users.
Thanks David.... I just hope people find it as useful and practical to use as I do... If anyone has any problem using it please let me know and I'll try to explain how to use it...
I also made VB Program (Just wrote it!!) where a person can do the following (Richter Tuning Only)
1. select any Harp key and the Notes/Hole numbers for every hole will show up on a diagram of the harp ,
2. A person can select a chord and all the chord notes / note numbers for that key will show up.
3 The user can select either Note or Number View
if you would like to have it ask me and I will email it to you!!.
for the usefull chart, and to David to make it available, is smartly done indeed, thumbs up
personally I remember only the circle of fifths.
This is a not about the Circle of 5ths ... :)
If you replace your big circle by the the circle if fifths, you have just to arrange your little circle in the order 1, 2, 3, ..., 12 ;-)
oh... I didn't think of that!! ... I should try doing it like that and see how that looks.
The choice is the same for major. If a song is in the Key of A you would choose the D Harmonica to play in 2nd Position. If a song is in the Key of Am (A Minor) you would choose the D Harmonica to play in 2nd Position still, but follow the rules of playing in minor (see my lesson on this subject from the LESSONS link above). Playing in 3rd Position (also covered in that lesson and one of the 3rd Position studies) can also be a great choice.