Converting Straight Harp Songs To Crossharp?
David, is there a software or a conversion process that I could use to play, for example, classic Stephen Foster songs that are historical played in straight harp to 2nd positon, crossharp?
I know the songs, and I was going to work on playing them in octaves. I have found that with my U Blocking I can play the Octaves.
I feel like a drop my tongue down and use the tip to block in between the Octave notes. I was hoping that I could just keep my tongue there and practice blocking the open Octave note to the left with the tongue and then I would hopefully be in a classic tongue block position.
I thought that if I could use the patriotic songs and get them into a Crossharp position that I could kill 2 birds with one stone.
Thank you so much, David.
Will
Hello Will.
Yes, the process is outlined in Music Theory Study 1.
Practicing octaves is always a good idea. For your u-block position you're most likely going to raise your tongue so that the tip is blocking the middle two holes while your lips are over four.
Listening to the video you sent me, the u-block shape was still present when you were trying the standard tongue block, and you've been working on this for a long time... use the u-block as your primary embouchure, it's time to stop fighting it. Also use octaves as another texture available to you... it worked for Paul Butterfield (u-block being similar to the pucker embouchure he used, and he also used octaves).