music theory as it relates to "walk with me"
Dave - If you didnt provide the tabs for walk with me, and I tried to play the song by reading the music alone for chorus 1, you begin with a 3 draw followed by a 4 blow. If left to myself I would have started with a 7 draw for the B note instead of the 3 draw which is also B as, I use the reference point of E being the 5 blow on a C harmonica, and work up from there. Why am I making this mistake?
Okay. Thanks
Dave it took awile for me to see why our music theory isnt matching up. I had tried learning with a harmonica book called "you can play harmonica" by Amy Appleby and Peter Picklow, and in their book under music notation on page 16 they cleary show that a 5 blow is their E note on the lowest staff line, and their 3 draw( B note) is just below the first ledger line of the staff. Why is their such a variation in teaching music notation for the harmonica? I printed off your music theory study 1 quick chart, and I clearly see how you are teaching music notation, but it is very different from the author referenced above. Im just going to go with what you are teaching, but I feel like I have to relearning this all over again?
Also - I am in my first free month through Hohner, and want to continue thereafter, how can I sign up for ongoing monthly access without interuption?
Hello Baruch. It's common practice for all instruments to do this. The good thing is all we have to deal with is an octave difference (up or down, depending on the music). Other instruments have to deal with clef changes as well (where the lines and spaces are different notes), so consider us lucky.
I'm glad you're enjoying your studies. When your access stops, go to http://www.bluesharmonica.com/subscribe and subscribe with your same user name and password.
Okay. Nothing is easy. Thanks
Morning baruch.friedman. 3 draw B is found on the middle line of the staff, where the 7 draw B is found sitting on top of a ledger line above the staff. 2+ E is found on the lowest line of the staff and 5+ E in the middle between the top two staff lines.
The staff denotes pitch range, and to keep the music notation within the staff for the harmonica I've chosen 1+ C (our lowest note) as the C below the staff (middle C). Since we spend most of the time on our harmonica in the blues (and country, rock, etc.) between holes 1 through 6, this range works best for us. For those that write books for basic folk music, you may find they choose 4+ C to be middle C, leaving the staff to work well for the middle and upper octaves (avoiding the use of ledger lines above the staff). So, as you can see from my description, the author of a work can decide which range is used on the staff.
This material is covered in Music Theory Study 1 http://www.bluesharmonica.com/lessons/music_theory_study_1 and you'll find a handy pitch reference in Example 2.3.