Common pre-war harp keys, Good Morning Little School Girl
Sun, 01/27/2013 - 19:47
David,
Do you know what key of harp John Lee Williamson used on "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl"? The recording is half-way between the keys of B and C. I'm guessing that it was in C, because I'm assuming that F harps were more commonly available than E harps back in those days (no internet, just what's available at the music store). I'm going to use Audacity to either raise or lower the pitch a bit and work on that song. I love his playing.
Are my assumptions correct? What key of harps do you think those guys could have picked up in music stores back in the 30s and 40s?
UPDATE: It's much closer to B than C. So maybe he did have an E harp.
On cut from "The Complete Recorded Works Volume 1" CD release it's clearly an standard F Harmonica in 2nd. On the "Essential Blues Harmonica [Disc 2]" CD release it's like yours, flat. I would tend to guess it was an F Harmonica. I'm not too sure about the key availability back then. I recommend you contact Harmonica Collectors International and ask that someone from their membership write a short article on the subject... please share if they do.