I tried to post as a guest, but it didn't appear...had to refresh my cookie!

It's been 8 years since I posted the original question...hard to believe!

Dad's 84 now, and still playing harmonica. (and cutting his own firewood, and mowing lawns for a part-time job...) Most of his Harpo Club pals have passed on.

However, a friend of his who plays blues harp says that my whistle-to-harp transcriptions often put dad in "4th position" (or sometimes "2nd position).

Anyway, that was kind of meaningless to dad and me, so he's just kept playing things in the notation I've given him...sometimes it's a straight change---sometimes it isn't. He's got a whole box of harps, so it doesn't take him long to figure out which one to use to match what I'm playing. Reynaud, of course, is on the fiddle, so he doesn't care what key we're playing in--he just improvises around us.

I agree that pentatonic tunes are MUCH easier to work with, but we do several that aren't, where I have to cross-finger notes on the whistle for accidentals, and dad needs to use a "special 20" which seem to have more notes on them than his "golden melodies" do.

Mudcats are the Best!

V