The Creeper - 3rd Position?
Fri, 04/14/2017 - 08:39
Fellow harpists,
The song, The Creeper or The Creeper Returns (Finger Lickin' Good by Charlie Musselwhite) has been coming up often in my playlists recently. The tune is almost always in the key of B or Bm I guess. It sounds like a great tune to let loose on and play with the band.
If any of you have played it before, do you play it in 2nd or 3rd position? It sounds like it wants to be played in 3rd position on an A harp but the licks don't come as naturally for me that way. Some things suggest it's in 2nd Position on an E harp though, such as many players emphasizing deep throat vibrato when resolving to the root.
What do you all think?
Fri, 04/14/2017 - 09:39
#2
Dude, that is a great
Dude, that is a great answer! Thanks so much. I have a lot of great homework now.
The Creeper (and its followup the Creeper Creeps Again) is a completely different tune by James Cotton.
Little Sonny played "The Creeper Returns" in second on an E-harp, and so did Charlie but under the title "Finger Lickin' Good". Mark Hummel, however, played it in third on an A-harp, putting the main notes in the same register as the higher-pitched E-harp.
You could study Little Sonny's and Charlie's versions in second and then try adapting them to third, with Mark's version as a guide.
Draw 2-3-4 in second outlines the 1-3-5 of the home chord. Draw 4-5-6 in third does the same thing, but as soon as you step outside that magic circle everything is different - neighboring draw notes and most of the blow notes give you different result relative to those three core notes.
Adapting second-position stuff to third allows you to outline those differences in several ways. Among them:
You can explore the common area describe above and then play duplicate hole/breath patterns and experience the results. This can help you to find cool stuff to play and also to start recognizing what you hear when you listen to another player playing third.
You can also use second-position licks and riffs to explore and master the bottom octave (Holes 1-2-3-4) in third. Let's say you have second-position licks on a lower-pitched harp - G, A, Bb, maybe even C. When you transfer them to third on a higher pitcehd harp (C, D, Eb, and F respectively) those licks will fall in the first four holes, But they will require you to really work on the bends in those holes.