Bending Tool Whats This?

Hi Luke.
I’ve been using the Bending Tool that you guy’s have provided and am really loving it, I’ve noticed a vast improvement from when i first started trying to bend. I practice playing for at least an hour every day and always involve some time to using the Bending Tool. You probably have been asked this question before and i have not picked it up but what are the keys High G, Low F#, Low F, Low E, Low Eb, Low D ? I notice all the other 12 keys are there but what do i do with these??

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Hey there @fallonsteve291 I’m glad you’re enjoying the Bend it Better tool!

So just to clarify for anyone who doesn’t understand where this question is coming from, on the Bend it Better tool, in the upper left hand corner, second box from the top, if you click on the box it reveals the most common key harmonicas that people play.

In addition to the 12 common keys, there is also one higher key, and many lower keys, the most common of which are listed in the Bend It Better box for choosing the key harp you’re playing.

Here’s a thread about Sonny Boy Williamson’s employment of a Low D harp on the song Bye Bye Bird.

These are other keys made by Lee Oskar, Hohner Rocket line of harps, Seydel, and I think Suzuki makes some too. I wouldn’t worry about checking out the high G - the standard F harp is already a bit shrill for my taste!

But the Low tunings are really cool and worth checking out. I first dipped my toes into the Low tunings with a Low F because, as I mentioned above, the standard F is a bit shrill for my taste.

Hope that helps! LMK if you have any further questions on the topic. Also check out this post about the Seydel’s:

Rock on,
Luke

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Hi Luke

“But wait there’s more!”

How exciting, that means I can buy more harps!! Really dig the Sonny Boy Williamson “Bye Bye Bird” video. He’s really playing with that harp.

Thanks for explaining that!

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I know, right!?! I have so many fricken harmonicas, and still a ton on the wishlist as well!

Anyways, I’m a fan of the motto:

Love one woman, many harmonicas :wink:

It’s a good recipe for happiness in my experience. :joy:

Rock on,
Luke

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Hey thats a great motto, can I use it?

Never too many harps.Just about to purchase a Sydel 1847 in key of Bd.

Can you point me to any songs in that key?

Appreciate it! Thanks

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Hi @fallonsteve291,

Don’t forget that with your wonderful Seydel 1847 in Bb that you can also play songs in F Major and F minor (both use 2nd position), C minor (3rd position), G minor (4th position), D minor (5th position) and Eb Major (12th position)!! :exploding_head: :partying_face: :cowboy_hat_face:

Have fun,
– Slim :sunglasses:

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Woo, woo, woo @Slim your wiggin me out!

Your musical knowledge is a bit too far advanced for my understanding. Thanks for the tip though!

Having said that, and now I’m on the subject, can you advise me on a deeper dive into musical theory. I loved the theory section in @Luke course and am looking for more.

Regard.

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Hi @fallonsteve291,

Sorry – I did not intend to overwhelm you! :innocent: There are, I am sure, many good music theory sites online. The one that I can say is quite good is this site (click on the blue text, but it is all in German – and it is rather cumbersome to copy/paste into Google translate so much text. :roll_eyes:

I don’t know of any sites that are specifically aimed at diatonic harp players. Have you looked into buying one of the “… for Dummies” books by Winslow Yerxa? If I recall, there are two of them (“Harmonica For Dummies” and “Blues Harmonica For Dummies”) and both can also be purchased as e-books for Kindle (for which Android has an app for reading & buying them as well). The books do not have an order in which you should read them, so if your main interest is Blues then go for the Blues Harmonica For Dummies.

Regards,
– Slim :sunglasses:

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G’day@Slim
You didn’t overwhelm me, I was just joking.
I must say though I’m interested in
4th, 5th and 12th positions on the harp

Thank you for responding and forwarding that useful information I’ll give those ideas a crack.

Thanks for being so open and sharing!

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Your are welcome, @fallonsteve291 !

My guess is that you will find 5th position the easiest (that would be mainly for playing D minor pentatonic on your Bb harp). In case you are unsure about that D minor pentatonic scale on the Bb harp here it is (note that I use -2 to indicate “draw hole 2”, and +2 for “blow hole 2”):

The notes are: D F G A C and then the next octave repeats these (D F G A C). On your Bb
harp
those areas follows:

D : +2
F : -2 (or +3)
G : -3"
A : -3
C : -4

D : +5
F : +6
G : -6
A : -7
C : -8

D : +8
F : +9
G : -10

Notice that you can include the -1 (C) at the low end, and notes that also can be played and sound good with this scale are -2’ (E), -3’ (Ab), +6o (Ab, which is an overblow on hole 6 – an advanced technique) and +9’ (E, which is a blow bend on hole 9).

Notes which are usually regarded as “avoid” notes when playing in 5th position are all which produce a Bb (on your Bb harp):

+1, +4, +7 and +10

Try it out and enjoy!! :musical_note:

– Slim :sunglasses:

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my thunderbird low F is my absolute favorite of all the harps ive owned tottoly bendable almost effortless overblows and hands down the fattest tone ive gotten from any harp dennis grundelin(?baddass harmonicas)kind of fat tone theres a lowlowF tbird as well as a couple other keys in lowlowoctive tunings Rockets can be ordered in low and lowlow tunings as well not sure exactly which keys that is available with tho but $80 or so bucks for rocket lows compared to tbirds at $125 and up the rocket lows bottom cover isnt tapered like the tbird bottom covers are but what ive read there is no reed rattling problem with rocket lows regardless extra clearance the reeds dont strike the cover which makes me say huh? to the almost $50 price diffrnce

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Great advice, thanks @Southside_Slim :+1:

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your very welcome Bro,um just sharing my observations btw im no one to give advice nor teach anybody anything i actually dropped in just now to find what other harp i could use for a song in F# i just lost another blow reed on my tbird dang i just bought those plates luckily not the same hole as last time now ill buy the tools d of instead of buying new plates i bought the reed replacement interchange guide from harmonicas direct when i bought those plates $50 for them $20 i think for the book the complete kit i think was almost $300 so ima buy a few componants at a time juast knowing i could have repaired and still had All of those that id blown out really grinds my gears lol Peace i gotta get back to the Lab (bandlab)and get busy on this song

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There are twelve standard harmonica keys ranging from G as the lowest to F# as the highest. Harmonicas that go outside of this range are extended pitches. I own a Lee Oskar in High G and originally bought them to play a couple of Terry McMillan songs that I liked. They’re so much fun to play on for blues altough not a lot of people use them. The most common way I’ve seen people use extended range harps is as a harmonica line that is an octave higher or lower than the key you’re playing in. Todd Parrott told me he does this a lot for the songs in his album.
I’m not endorsed by Seydel, but they make the lowest and highest keys available on the harmonica (LowLowE and High Bb).

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