Hi Scott! I’ve struggled with this for a while and watched all the youtube videos. Unfortunately, even the above comments are overly technical and confusing.
The most important thing: Playing second position IS NOT moving one hole to the left or something simple like that. I’ve spent lots of time on that wild goose chase in this thread:
As an example, Here is the basic Happy Birthday tune:
6 6 –6 6 7 –7
6 6 –6 6 –8 7
6 6 9 8 7 –7 –6
–9 –9 8 7 –8 7
Here is the second position version.
-1 -1 2 -1 -2 2’
-1 -1 2 -1 3" -2
-1 -1 -4 -3 2? 2 2" 2b
4 4 -3 -2 3" -2d
While there is a logic to how it’s done,
there are just too many “quirks” to this system
to be able to do this in real time
(which is what I assumed people
were doing any why I was so frustrated).
There is no “magical second position secret”,
it just requires that you re-write the tabs.
Initially I wanted to figure out the “logic” behind it,
but it’s not as simple as “move 4 holes to the left”,
with the “remapping of holes” being more intricate,
luckily I found Seydel has a free tool
which claims to be able to do this:
[https://www.seydel1847.de/Harp-Configurator/Worth-knowing-info/SEYDEL-TabTool-Online ](https://www.seydel1847.de/Harp-Configurator/Worth-knowing-info/SEYDEL-TabTool-Online)
So unless you are playing improvisationally, where you can just use the “Scale” of that position, you must find (or convert) the tabs first to that position - you CAN’T play something in second position “on the fly” - that’s where all the confusion comes from and what no one seems to actually tell you.