What Key Harmonica for Gm?
Hey!
I've been asked to record a harmonica track for a tune in the key of G minor. It's a Spanish sounding tune, the chords (as far as I've been able to figure out) are Gm - Cm - F Gm with a Dm in there somewhere as well. I'm actually surprised he wants a harmonica on it, but he says he does. I've been taking lessons on this site for about a year, and I'm at level 4. Any insights on what key harmonica I should use, and any other thoughts I'd really appreciate. I'm an experienced musician, but the instruments I'm best at are violin and guitar.
Thanks!
Vern
As you may know there are several flavors of minor scale.
The easiest minor scale to access on diatonic harmonica is the Dorian scale, which occurs naturally (i.e., no need to bend or otherwise alter the pitch of the given notes) in third position. So D Dorian on a C harp, E Dorian on a D harp, and so oon. If you know how to use the circle of fifths to figure positions, you just go clockwise two places from the key of the harmonica, or two positions counter-clockwise from the desired Dorian mode key.
But Dorian mode isn't fully minor. The sixth degree of the scale is major. This is right for some songs and chord progressions and not for others. It works fine on blues in general - it's the basis for most of the blues chromatic you hear, as the draw chord on a C chromataic is the D minor chord with the added major 6th (B). And if that's what you're going for, this is the easiest and most natural solution. On diatonic, to go down the scale from Draw 4, you'll need stable two-semitone bends in Draw 3 and 2. You can hear some players completely avoiding that Draw 3 bend, as it's one of the most dofficult to keep stable.
If you want to go further into non-blues minor keys, fourth position and fifth position both have things to offer, but also some difficulties.Fourth position (A minor on a C harp) gives you a natural minor scale (minor 3rd, 6th, and 7th scale degrees), and you can bend Draw 6 and 3 to get the major 7th degree that sometimes comes up in European minor songs. But you also have the inconvenieve of not haveing a full A minor home chord. A is a draw note, whie C and E, the other two notes of that chord, are blow notes. Additionally, you have to create the A note as a Draw 3 bend in the first octave. That said, I've had fun with this position, as you can hear in my instrumental tune Go Lower:https://winslowyerxa.bandcamp.com/track/go-lower
Fifth position (E minor on a C harp) is sometimes used in various musical styles, including an early blues record, William McCoy's Central Track Blues:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfJIQUmeMjA
Here, you have the E minor chord (E G B) broken up into two overlapping segments, E and G as blow notes and G and B as bendable draw notes. The chief problems is the "avoid note" of F, wich is the minor second degbree of the scale, which sounds great in flamenco but not so much in blues. That note occurs in Draw 5 and 9. Omitting that note gives you most of a natural minor scale, with minor 6th and 7th degrees,
Hi Vern.
I hope Winslow doesn't take offense at my butting in. I'll really enjoy his picking apart my limited scope of advice (and I expect he'll have great insights).
As a violinist and guitarist, you probably have a pretty good grounding in all of this. The triad notes for the chords you mention, Gm, Cm, Dm, F, (i, iv, v, bVII) are all in the G natural minor scale. G A Bb C D Eb F.
Unless you want to spring for a natural-minor tuned harp, so long as you're comfortable with bends on holes 1-4 you should be able to grab single notes playing in 3rd position on an F or LowF harp. Also, as you probably know, Gm is the relative minor of Bb. So a lot of what you want is available on a Bb harp (but you'll note that the root, G, is a full bend, e.g., '', on the 3 draw, which might not have the best sound or stability, depending on your 3-bend comfort level - but clean draw on the 6).
David's lessons here on the site on 3rd position, and on chord tones, can steer you in the right direction.
Good luck!