Archive for the 'Uncategorized' Category

I’m looking forward to attending the Harmonica Collective workshop in Indianapolis in a couple of weeks!

It’s a three-day, four-night event featuring specialists in blues, jazz, Celtic, and harp tech, including Jason Ricci, Michael Peloquin, Richard Sleigh, James Conway, and the author of Harmonica For Dummies, Winslow Yerxa.

What do I hope to gain from going to a harmonica conference? Well, to start with, top-secret harmonica information I can’t even anticipate, because I’m not one of the Illuminati (yet). I do have goals in a few different areas, though.

Overblows: Several of the teachers are top OB practitioners. Hopefully they can give me some pointers or perspective after they hear me play.

Tongue Blocking: I play fiddle tunes (and most other music) using a pucker embouchure. I tongue block a bit, throwing in octaves and tongue slaps, and I’ve worked pretty extensively on using TB to play drones behind melodies. I’d like to get started on some corner switching for melodies that have big jumps and arpeggio figures. Vamping (adding rhythmic chords behind the melody) would also be of interest.

Style-Specific Pointers: Jazz, Blues, Irish, and other musical styles are essentially languages. I’d love to pick up some vocabulary and improve my pronounciation by speaking with natives and naturalized citizens from those countries. Sorry for the mixed metaphors.

Friends, Colleagues: it can be good to meet people who are obsessed with the same stuff you’re into.

Concerts: did I mention that all the teachers will be performing?

In summary, Harmonicaland, here I come. Woohoo!

PS: the Expert Guide roster seems to be heavy on beards. I am curious to know whether this holds true for attendees as well. Does having a beard predispose one to playing the harmonica, or does it evolve as one persists in playing? What does this mean for women? Deep questions.

Here are note layouts for standard (Richter-tuned) diatonic harmonicas in all 12 major keys.

C

Blow  C  E  G  C  E  G  C  E  G  C
Hole  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10
Draw  D  G  B  D  F  A  B  D  F  A

D

Blow  D  F# A  D  F# A  D  F# A  D
Hole  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10
Draw  E  A  C# E  G  B  C# E  G  B

E

Blow  E  G# B  E  G# B  E  G# B  E 
Hole  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10
Draw  F# B  D# F# A  C# D# F# A  C#

F

Blow  F  A  C  F  A  C  F  A  C  F
Hole  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10
Draw  G  C  E  G  Bb D  E  G  Bb D

G

Blow  G  B  D  G  B  D  G  B  D  G
Hole  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10
Draw  A  D  F# A  C  E  F# A  C  E

A

Blow  A  C# E  A  C# E  A  C# E  A
Hole  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10
Draw  B  E  G# B  D  F# G# B  D  F#

B

Blow  B  D# F# B  D# F# B  D# F# B
Hole  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10
Draw  C# F# A# C# E  G# A# C# E  G#

Bb

Blow  Bb D  F  Bb D  F  Bb D  F  Bb
Hole  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10
Draw  C  F  A  C  Eb G  A  C  Eb G

Eb

Blow  Eb G  Bb Eb G  Bb Eb G  Bb Eb
Hole  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10
Draw  F  Bb D  F  Ab C  D  F  Ab C

Ab

Blow  Ab C  Eb Ab C  Eb Ab C  Eb Ab
Hole  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10
Draw  Bb Eb G  Bb Db F  G  Bb Db F

Db

Blow  Db F  Ab Db F  Ab Db F  Ab Db
Hole  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10
Draw  Eb Ab C  Eb Gb Bb C  Eb Gb Bb

F#

Blow  F# A# C# F# A# C# F# A# C# F#
Hole  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10
Draw  G# C# E# G# B  D# E# G# B  D#

0 flats				C			0 sharps

1 flat		       F 	  	 	   G		1 sharp

2 flats		Bb						  D		2 sharps	

3 flats	    Eb		                   	  			  A	3 sharps

4 flats		Ab						  E		4 sharps

5 flats	             Db		  		  B		5 sharps

6 flats			     Gb / F#			6 sharps

______________________________________________________________

The Circle of 5ths (clockwise=sharps)
The Circle of 4ths (counter-clockwise=flats)

Read the linked articles for more info.

What’s the difference between cross harp and straight harp? Are they different instruments? Nope, just different ways of playing the diatonic harmonica.

In straight harp, or first position, you’re playing in the key of C on a C harmonica. Your major scale looks like 4 -4 5 -5 6 -6 -7 7. Your draw notes are bendable, and your blow notes are points of resolution. Straight harp is the sound of the major key, happy, folk, campfire, Civil War songs, Irish fiddle tunes, and lots of straight-ahead melody playing.

In cross harp, or second position, you’re playing in the key of G on a C harmonica. Your major scale requires bends, and runs from 2-draw to 6-blow. In the low octave, your draw notes are where things resolve. Read that again – your resolving notes can bend. That means, when you bend them, you are messing with the laws of gravity.

Resolution notes are the notes that you need for stability, for the song to be at peace. No wonder cross harp is the position for playing the blues! You are seriously messing with your listeners’ musical universe when you bend those notes on 2, 3, and 4 draw, and it naturally has a powerful emotional effect.

Here’s a closer look.

Straight Harp Major Scale

Hole #	4	-4	5	-5	6	-6	-7	7
	C	D	E	F	G	A	B	C	
Scl Deg 1	2	3	4	5	6	7	1

The numbers on the bottom row are scale degrees. There are seven notes in a diatonic scale. C is note number 1 in the key of C. D is note number 2, and so on.

Listen to the sound of B to C. They’re really close. There’s a strong sense of resolution. The distance between B and C is a half-step.

Cross Harp Major Scale (Mixolydian Mode)

Hole #	-2	-3”	-3	4	-4	5	-5	6
	G	A	B	C	D	E	F	G
Scl Deg 1	2	3	4	5	6	b7	1

Now play the G cross harp major scale, also known as the Mixolydian mode. It’s different from the standard major scale. Aside from the difficulty of bending accurately on hole 3, listen to what happens from F to G at the end. Those two notes are a lot farther apart, soundwise, than B to C above. There’s a whole step at the end of the Cross Harp modal scale, which gives it a slightly different feel. It’s like a cross between major and minor.

Now let’s go all the way over to the dark side…

Cross Harp Blues Scale (Minor Pentatonic)

Hole #		-2	-3'	4	-4'	-4	-5	6
		G	Bb	C	Db	D	F	G
Scale Deg	1	b3	4	b5	5	b7	1

To start with, we have fewer notes than above. Scale degree-wise, we originally had 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1. Here, we skip the 2 and 6, we bend to get a note in-between 4 and 5, AND our 7th is flatted. Whoa! Not only that, but we bend the 3rd scale degree to get a minor 3rd. Whoa again!

No wonder cross harp gives you the blues, and I’m not talking about the technical difficulty. Depending how much you edge that 3rd up, you can inflect major or minor, but the overall sound is MINOR. Playing this minor sound against a guitarist playing major chords, you get a twangy, discordant sound. Powerfully emotional.

Straight harp can trigger powerful emotions, too, and when deployed strategically, it can sound every bit as unhinged as cross harp, but they really have different strengths.

Stepping away from music theory and technique, turning to the level of cultural currency, cross harp has deep connections with blues, gospel, and country music. As soon as someone starts playing cross harp, even an amateur, you know you’re headed down a bumpy dirt road somewhere, and that clear liquid in the jar probably isn’t water. Watch out.

We have 12 notes available to us in Western music.

7 of these notes have just one name:

A B C D E F G

5 of these note have two names:

A#/Bb      C#/Db      D#/Eb 	    F#/Gb       G#/Ab

A# (A-sharp) means “the note that’s higher than A.”

Bb (B-flat) means “the note that’s lower than B.”

The Chromatic Scale
The Chromatic Scale uses all twelve notes, all spaced exactly the same distance apart.

A  A#/Bb  B  C  C#/Db  D  D#/Eb  E  F  F#/Gb  G  G#/Ab

Each note is a ½ step away from the one next door.

You’ll notice that most of the plain letter names are a whole step apart, except for B to C and E to F, which are a half-step. That’s handy to keep in mind.

Building Scales
The distance from note to note is one way to build a scale.

Chromatic Scale – start anywhere, then H H H H H H H H H

Major Scale – key note, then W W H, W W W H.

Minor Scale – key note, then W H W W H W.

Remember, all the plain letter names are a whole step apart, except for B to C and E to F, which are only a half-step.

C-Major

We’ll start on C, then go W W H, W W W H

C to D is a whole step
D to E is a whole step
E to F is a half step
F to G is a whole step
G to A is a whole step
A to B is a whole step
B to C is a half step

No problem! The notes are all the right distance apart. But what if we run into a half-step when we need a whole step? Well, then we expand it by adding a sharp (#).

G-Major

We’ll start on G, and then go W W H, W W W H…

G to A is a whole step
A to B is a whole step
B to C is a half step
C to D is a whole step
D to E is a whole step
E to F is a half-step → we need a whole step here, so we’ll use F#
F# to G is a half step.

Thus the notes in a G-major scale are G A B C D E F# G.

Ok, we can expand an interval by using a sharp. What if we need to contract a whole step down to a half-step? The answer: use a flat (b).

F Major

Start on F, then go W W H, W W W H…

F to G is a whole step.
G to A is a whole step.
A to B is a whole step, but we need a half-step. We’ll use Bb.
Bb to C is a whole step.
C to D is a whole step.
D to E is a whole step.
E to F is a half step.

The notes in an F major scale are F G A Bb C D E F.

Flat Keys and Sharp Keys (Major Scales)

The keys of G D A E B F# and C# use sharps.

The keys of F Bb Eb Ab Db use flats.

The quickest way to learn which notes are flat and which are sharp in a key is to study the Circle of 5ths. We’ll talk about that in another article.

Conclusion
Learn the 12 notes in the chromatic scale, and you’ll have all the note names you need to build other types of scale. The major scale has a spacing of W W H, W W W H, and you can just count alphabetically up the note names to build it.

Remember that B to C and E to F are both half-steps. All the rest are whole steps. If you need to, you can adjust your intervals using sharps and flats.

Homework:
Build major scales on each of these key notes:

C

G

D

A

E

B

F#

F

Bb

Eb

Ab

Db