Hi harmonician guys
Today I practiced something crazy: the third (D) major position with simple slow pop-rock backing tracks. Only on the left (low) side of the harmonica. That will be in tablatures:
-1’ -1 2 -2’ -2 -3’’ -3 -4’ -4 5 (c# d e f# g a b c# d e)
For me it’s very good for precise bending with throat vibrato workouts.
What do You think about it? Does somebody play in that or other (not-so) crazy positions?
In the D major scale, the note names are: D, E, F#, G, A, B, and C#. The F# is what makes that chord/scale sound major or happy as opposed to the F in minor chords and scales, which sound sad. So if we were to play it in third position on the bottom end of a C harmonica, it’s 1d 2b 2d’ 2d 3d" 3d 4d’ 4d.
But if you’re focusing on the middle of the harp, that’s going to be tricky as we normally can’t access that major third. The only ways that make the third position major scale possible in the middle is either by learning how to overblow on hole 5 to access it or use a country tuned harmonica, which naturally has that major third as it was made to play melodies. Although country tuning was originally made for playing melodies in 2nd position (not country music, its name actually came from the genre that the creators (Roy Buchanan and Charlie McCoy) mostly played harmonica in), you could also do it in third position. My teacher, Todd Parrott, sometimes uses country tuning for playing melodies that sound more natural in a different position outside of 2nd.
I’ll give it a try.
Yep, as @KeroroRinChou mentioned the Country Tuned harp is great for this. I love using country-tuned 3rd position major for songs like “Sweet Home Alabama” and “Can’t You See” But Todd Parrott has a whole bunch of other songs that it works really well for. I think some Fats Domino’s ones, like “Blueberry Hill”. You might consider reaching out to Todd. He’s got a lot of good resources on the subject.
I’m still trying that. But You @KeroroRinChou and @Luke have intrigued me about CT. I’ve checked that and looks that notes below middle F# are the same in standard Richter. I tried to find some 3rd position major harmonica recordings on YouTube (never mind CT or Righter) and failed. Do You have some examples (links)?
That position I’m playing only on mentioned before low notes, because i really don’t like my F# notes overblowed. My out of tune on that note isn’t acceptable for me and cannot be improved for this time.
Before I’ve also tried to play first natural minor position and that works similar for precise bending, but much better in middle and high octaves.
I think that if you look up the SPAH Saturday morning gospel show on YouTube, there’s some archival footage from 2022 up until the most recent one. Some of what Todd’s playing during his sections use country tuning in 3rd position. I remember one time during one of the gospel shows, he did a very beautiful cover of “Old Rugged Cross” on a key of B country tuned harmonica (it was either 2022 or 2023). Check it out if you can.
Wow! That SPAH Saturday morning shows are shocking awesome. I know these songs. In about 2000’s I joined to worship band in pentecostal church in our city in Poland and pastor really liked songs from some legendary polish songbook (“Śpiewnik pielgrzyma”). I played these songs. Firstly on accordion and then on harmonica. I know “Old rugged cross” as “Stary szorstki krzyż” and “Power In The Blood” as “Moc w świętej krwi”. This is strong proof that church is good place for harmonica. Still not found major third position, but that not matters. I will gladly listen to all the recordings. Thanks @KeroroRinChou