As I am playing more and focusing less on technique because muscle memory is kicking in I noticed something I struggle with is playing out of key, even unaccompanied. I think we all know tabs are universal barring alternate tunings, but playing the wrong key is driving me (and my wallet nuts)
I learn a song by listening to it and whistling it, quite a bit, it helps me figure out patterns and rhythm, also handy for how often I don’t have a hand for my harp. But because I listen and learn it this way, it sounds very off when I play a song written in D on my C. Tried it on my Low D and it sounds perfect to me.
Curious if anyone else struggles with this or if it a newbie problem and I’ll get used to it. My story ends with I have a 008k in D on order
@RynoSaurusRex . I pick up on patterns too, especially when I’m tabbing out a tune. Theres probably a musical term for what you and I calling patterns, but interesting for me to read your post.
I mostly play slow melodies, and I don’t notice much if it’s not the correct key. (it’s another of my weak points) I usually carry A and Bb with me, so I just choose the one that sounds best.
If it’s an actual harmonica part in the song, then I will find out what it is, and match it with the correct key. They are nearly always intros, e.g. 'Dirty old town (Pogues), ‘Take the long way home’, (Supertramp) ‘Follow the sun’ (Xavia Rudd). In those cases, the intro is all that I play.
Back when I was learning classical guitar my old teacher really focused on breaking songs into tiny pieces and finding where those pieces repeat, so I think it’s a well grounded learning method. Once you have the repetitive parts memorized it only leaves the outliers left to memorize and learn which is typically a smaller part of the song. It works great with harmonica except the 6->7 hole draw/blow pattern shift
I believe he called it ‘learning the shapes’ or something similar.
I too play virtually only melodies, entirely focused on Euro trad folk, my one day goal is to be able to play with an amateur Irish session, but I’m quite happy being to play unaccompanied, it lets me pick the key so I don’t have to worry about multiple harps
I get them a line at a time. If there is a line or two that do not seem to lock in memory I play them over and over. Divide and simplifying it helps me. If there are no lyrics and I am not familiar with the tune this is the only way I will get it. After knowing the music I then work on rhythm, which seems to be the hardest part for me to really get. Its all about persistence I/M/O, which means practicing daily. If I get around 20 tunes in memory then I spend about all my time cleaning up the slop, or getting the rhythm down.
