Andrew Capper (first time here!). Really enjoying beginner to boss course. I play tenor sax in a band, and have recently picked up the harmonica to play on a few tunes. We’ve done different 3 tunes in 3 different keys so I have now started my harmonica collection by buying a new harmonica for each and test driving some different brands. Now that I understand the relation between the key and position, my question is when I may want a harmonica in the key of the tune vs playing in 2nd or 3rd position on a different harmonica
That is such a friggin good quesion. All of the videos about it tell you HOW to play it and what it is, but never WHY specifically. My wild guess is that it depends on the type of music - for example, when improvising/hamming blues I guess you’d pretty much always want to do it to sound, well, bluesy, but if the band is playing “When Johnny Comes Marching Home”/ “house of the rising sun” you’d play it normally.
Also, if you are playing the tabs and not improvising then there it’s already per-determined for you
I’m generally starting with the tabs but then also seeing where else I might noodle around and now that I know the musical math it’s easy enough to transpose the tabs (I have to deal with transposition all the time with my sax) but I’m guessing that when Luke mentions that a tune was recorded on a C harp in 2nd position that was actually a musical choice as opposed to playing first position on a G harp. I’m thinking it may be range of the tune dependent but just guessing. Luke also mentioned 2nd position as more bluesy (?)
@countrylivin289 I don’t want to get into Music Theory, but try making a list of the notes you can play on the harmonica in terms of ‘scale degrees’, i.e. where the root is 1, the 5th is 5, etc,.
Do that for 1st position, i.e. based on C as 1 on a C harmonica.
Then on the same harmonica do it for G as 1.
Then for each position take a look at the notes in the key that you get for ‘free’, i.e. just blow or draw, and then the ones you can get by bending.
Do you see any significance in the numbers you find? Especially things that might be useful to help getting those ‘blue’ notes?
It is pretty straightforward. Generally, you’d chose 3rd positions for minor key tunes. 2nd position for major key tunes.
As your abilities advance, you will be able to use either position for both major or minor tunes. At that point, the reasons for picking one or the other change, and you’ll chose the positions based on particular expressive bends you want to use, and on the phrasing options offered by each position.
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Ok. So when would you play first position?
from my super-basic understanding 1st position is used:
- when a tab is written for first position (for example, “OH SUSANNA” , some Irish jigs, etc)
- when you don’t know how to bend or bend well enough
- For improvising, You can also select the backing track to be in the key of the harmonica (so C backing track for a C harmonica and not the whole “if you have a C harmonica then you should “add 5” and it will be a G backing track thing”), so anyhow just select a C backing track and play simple notes from the middle (holes 4-7) on your C harmonica and it will sound nice and melodious.
IF it’s a ready-made TAB then fear not, that decision has ALREADY been made for you as the position is already pre-determined by the author (due to the notes in the tab) and you don’t need to know what positions are and just need to play those notes. You CAN also use the seydel tab tool to convert tabs to various positions/keys/etc if you feel so inclined.
When you are a beginner, 1st position is fantastic for playing folk melodies. In fact that is what the diatonic harmonica was designed to play! 2nd position was a “hack” that was figured out long after the fact.
After you advance, you might choose 1st position for a few reasons:
- It’s a folk melody that emphasizes the I chord and the V chord.
- It’s major blues and you intend to play up high or down low.
- It’s minor blues and you intend to be overblowing in the middle of the harp
- You are craving that distinctive pre-war piedmont blues sound.
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Also, there was a jazz player who only played in first position. Don Les. Recordings of him available on youtube.
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I’d forgot you could actually play Piedmont blues in first position. I might have a crack at some of that as I love the Piedmont sound
