Understand the theory of various positions

[Luke]

@scott4 - Yeah it’s just what hole is your home base (the place of greatest resolution, aka the “key” of the song, as explained here:

What the Heck is a Harmonica Position? (And WHY do I need to know?)

Different positions create totally different style sounds… wanna blues style sound? or do you want a folk style sound? …this is why you should care about position Explaining positions is a minefield but I’m going to take a crack at it here. If any of this goes over your head don’t worry, just absorb what you can and call it a start. Strap in! In order to understand what the heck is a harmonica position , we really need to understand wha…

You can download a positions chart, or look at the circle of 5ths in which case moving 1 space clockwise from key of the harp is your next position. So on a C harmonica, playing in key of F is 12th position, which is -2" and -6 are your root notes.

It just so happens, according to many comments I’ve gotten on the Amazing Grace video, that 12th position turns out to be the easiest place for beginners to play that song. Kinda crazy, but different songs just layout hard or easy in different positions.

It’s a bit of a mind-bender. It’s normal to be confused by positions at the beginning! For anyone doing the Beginner to Boss course, this post may be helpful:

Harmonica Positions Taught in Beginner to Boss

The subject of positions is so confusing at the beginning. All it refers to is what key song you’re playing along with. So for a C harmonica: 1st position is playing in the key of C major 2nd position is playing in the key of G major, but with a bluesy kinda sound 3rd position is playing in the key of D minor 4th position is playing in the key of A minor For those of you who are going through my course Beginner to Boss, I just wanna make sure that you’re aware that I teach a scale or two in…