Playing to "Worrisome Heart"
Hey everybody!
A friend of mine was asking me, if I want to play along the song "Worrisome Heart" from Melody Gardot with her.
I said yes and was listening to the song. It's a beautiful song in D Minor, original played with an saxophone. So I have to take the parts of the sax and my friend, who's singing the song, want to sing that song in exactly that key.
Usually, I need an F-Harp to play in D Minor, but I don't have one. So, here is my question:
Is it possible with an Bb-Harp or maybe a chromatic in the key of C to play along with the song? And how?
(These two harps are one of my other harps I can imagine to play.)
Or is it just easier to buy a harmonica in the key of F?
I'm looking forward to your help.
Greetings from Germany
Rouven
Alright! Thank you Expert Winslow Yerxa for the help!
The Bb Harp was my first idea for using, but I'm not familiar with playing in fifth position.
Then I will try to play with the chromatic harmonica and see how it's working. :)
In fact, that I still want a low F Harp in my harmonica case, I think I'll give it a shot too. ;)
Maybe it's sounds not so awkward, like you said.
An F harp, while it shares the same notes as the D natural minor scale, can be awkward to play unless your Hole 3 Draw bends are very precise, because the note D in the lower register is a bent Draw 3. Also, a regular F harp is very high pitched and may sound too bright when accompanying a singer.
A low F would give you a potentially more pleasing range and tone color, but it can still be awkward.
A Bb harp can work, if you get familiar with playing in fifth position. It does have some avoid notes, specifically Draw 5 and Draw 9.
A C chromatic harmonica is actually an excellent choice. The draw chord all through its range is a D minor chord, giving you a stable base of operations. The only potential avoid note is the draw note B, found in Draw 4, 8, and 12. However, you can also use the slide to access Bb and C#, both of which occur in D minor, along with any other chromatic notes you might need.