Playing as accompanist musician on Genres - Pop, Country, Contemporary
Hello David,
I decided to post follow up queries on Forum so that it will benefit other students/musicians as well :)
80% of my playing includes genres Pop, Country, Contemporary, Worship and 20% Blues.
Q - In Second Position, what notes or holes in Harmonica do I need to avoid while I accompany a band playing Pop, Country or Contemporary Music.
A - You suggested me to avoid Flat 7th of the Key (5 and 9 draws)
I did try this and it worked. But I was missing out on the draw notes :). At time I accidently hit the 5 draw…:D
Q - In music terms, supposing I HAVE to hit the 5 and 9 draws, what do I tell the Pianist? Can the pianist replace the Flat 7th with another note? :) Asking as I do play solos for weddings and I play on Second Position. For Ex : Ave Maria, Halleluia. Here comes the bride.
Q - I also need clarity for playing Minors :). As of now, I pick a relative Major Key and play in 1st position whenever I have to play a song in Minor. But I want to try and play Second Position for Minor songs.
Q - I recently played a solo starting with 2 blow. The pianist was asking me which key I was on. I wasn’t sure If I was playing in first or second position :)
Hello sundsouza,
"Q - In music terms, supposing I HAVE to hit the 5 and 9 draws, what do I tell the Pianist? Can the pianist replace the Flat 7th with another note? :) Asking as I do play solos for weddings and I play on Second Position. For Ex : Ave Maria, Halleluia. Here comes the bride."
If you're in 2nd Position, and you're on the I Chord, and the music requires that you hit the flat-7th, then your playing will have a bluesy quality. Most likely the other musicians will hear that and follow suit (play more bluesy). If you feel the need to communicate this ahead of time, then tell them that you'll be playing the song "a little more bluesy," or be more technical and ask them to play a "dominant 7th for the I Chord." Do keep in mind that the 5 and 9 draws (F on a C Harmonica), are not always bluesy. If the song has F appear in an altered chord, that F may no longer sound bluesy over that altered chord.
"Q - I also need clarity for playing Minors :). As of now, I pick a relative Major Key and play in 1st position whenever I have to play a song in Minor. But I want to try and play Second Position for Minor songs."
I'm not sure if I fully understand, "I pick a relative Major Key and play in 1st position whenever I have to play a song in Minor." By this do you mean that if a song is in A Minor, you choose a C Harmonica and play in 1st Position?
As Rob stated (thank you Rob)...
2nd Position is great, just stick to the blues scale. 3rd Position is also a great choice (less notes to avoid)... same thing, stick to the blues scale. There's a lesson on minor playing here: https://www.bluesharmonica.com/lessons/minor_playing
Yes, 5th position for the last question.
Thank you Rob. In India, its very challenging to get hold of country tuned or major tuned harps. This is the reason why I wanted to check if the pianist can make some tweeks to the Flat 7th. Im sure there is a lesson on this,but in nutshell would be able to advise why that draw 5 and 9 sounds off when Im playing on second position with the pianist who is playing the song using sheet music?
Now If I HAVE to play a song on second position (make it sound bluesy). I wana play Jingle Bells or Silent Night. What do I tell the pianist and the guitarist? :)
For 3rd Position I start on 4draw, are there any holes I gota stay away from?
Hello sundsouza.
The simple answer is that the flat-7th has a bluesy quality... period. If the music is not bluesy, don't use it. In other words, don't try to fit a square peg into a round hole. Celebrate the pretty sound of the music you're speaking of.
Playing in a position is like a language... it needs to be studied... you wouldn't try to learn a language by looking at the alphabet and asking which letters of the alphabet should I omit. It's a wonderful language, and here is where you get stated to learn it: https://www.bluesharmonica.com/lessons/3rd_position_study_1
sundouza:
"Jingle Bells" and "Silent Night" are both (at least in traditional versions) major-key melodies. That is, every note in the melody is in the major scale of the key in which one plays the song. No "accidentals," that is, notes that are sharped or flatted outside of that major scale. So very simple: Tell the guitarist or pianist what key you'd like to do the song in. If they're working from sheet music or a chord chart, though, and aren't adept at transposing, let THEM tell YOU what key they'd like to do it in, and then pull the appropriate harp out of your kit. No reason NOT to play them in 1st position. If you can bend the 2 and 3 draw, and half-step blow-bend the 10 blow, you have three octaves of major scale in the key of the harp you've picked up. And if you're not comfortable with the bends, you can just figure out which holes to skip. (E.g., holes 4-7 have all the notes you need, no bending.)
Now if what you're saying is that you want to play some sort of "bluesy" version of your own of either "Jingle Bells" or "Silent Night," you'll need to find a pianist or guitiarist who has solid knowledge and ability in the area of jazz and blues improvisation, and can listen to, and translate, how you envision playing the tune. If they're less experienced, and dependent on traditional sheet music or chord charts, I'm betting that what you want to do won't work at all.
The harmonica was originally designed to play in major, or ionian, mode. And more specifically to play what we think of as Alpine-style tunes, e.g., waltzes and polkas. Which is why the lowest three holes are tuned the way they are. That type of music focuses a lot on the I and V7 chords. And if you play a harp in 1st position, no matter what holes you play, when you blow you're getting the I chord, and when you draw you're getting the V7 chord.
It's helpful in this regard to look at the history of blues harmonica playing. Take what we hear as the major scale. e.g., CDEFGABC in C, and note that the pitch difference between B and C is a half step. But early blues players, with music that can be traced to African melodies, discovered that if you take a C harp, but start your scale on the 2 draw, your mode changes to mixolydian, i.e., GABCDEFG. Note that here the difference between the 7th and root, that final F to G, is a WHOLE step. This is what David is talking about when he describes the "dominant 7th," which makes for a very, very different sound when playing a song in G. And if one bends the 3-draw down a half step, i.e., taking the B natural down to B-flat, a sort of minor-ish "bluesy" sound. Early harmonica makers were horrified, of course, that players would intentionally make a note sound "out of tune." But that's literally how blues harmonica was born.
There are great artists out there who play all sorts of genres on harmonica, and have never spent 30 seconds studying music theory. They simply have great ears, and are able to apply what they hear. For the rest of us mortals, it can be really, really helpful to study music theory, and start to understand the musical mechanics of why a Christmas carol, a traditional blues tune, a bossa-nova, a 1920s Great American Songbook tune, and a Taylor Swift song, each sounds very different from the others.
And don't forget: Theory, technique, and a good ear are all important, but the No. 1 thing is to HAVE FUN!
sundsouza:
I'll be interested in David's responses, as I also do both pop (in cabaret shows) and music in our church, in addition to traditional blues.
But ... if you find yourself doing a lot of non-blues, major-sounding stuff, consider investing in most-used keys of major-tuned harps that use the 2-draw as root. E.g., Seydel's Tony Eyers Major Cross or Lee Oskar's Melody Maker. I have various keys of the Seydel Major Cross, and it's hard to go wrong with that stuff (plus there are some minor keys that are easy on the major-tuned harps).
Minor? If you're comfortable with all bends on 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 draw, the world's your oyster in 2nd position, even though 3rd position is more commonly thought of as for minor blues.
Finally, re the 2 blow. On any Richter-tuned diatonic (i.e., typical blues harp) it's a major 3rd up fromt the root. E.g., E on a C harp. So if you're playing key of E on a C harp, you're in 5th position. On that C, the E melodic minor scale can work failrly easily, but playing the E major scale might put you in Howard Levy land in terms of overblows.
And isn't it great that on that little 10-hole instrument there's a whole world out there beyond the blues?