Okay guys (and gals?) I’ve figured out this whole “second position” thing. I’ve had a lot of preconceptions about it, but after watching way too many videos, reading one too many pdfs and also this thread, I’ve finally mythbusted some of my preconceptions:
= YOU CAN"T “JUST PLAY” SOMETHING IN SECOND POSITION On the Fly. Unless maybe you are a musical genius or Japanese or whatever. it’s NOT about “just moving one hole to the right” - the “mapping” of holes is way more involved.
=To actually play something in second position, you need to find tabs for playing something in second position or make them yourself, and depending on the melody it may or many not be feasible
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
I haven’t tried it yet, but since the manual specifically states it’s able to do this, I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt