A Question for All You Harmonica Players....

Subject: RE: A QUESTION FOR ALL YOU HARMONICA PLAYERS.....
From: BSeed
Date: 27 Aug 98 - 11:29 PM

Zorro--and John in Brisbane: My "erudite reply" had one major (or, rather, minor) error in it: For playing most minor folk tunes, US, Irish, etc., it's not the harmonic minor harp you need, but the natural minor, that uses the same notes as the relative major (Aminor and C, Eminor and G, Bminor and D, F#minor and A, etc.)--sorry. --seed

Subject: RE: A QUESTION FOR ALL YOU HARMONICA PLAYERS.....
From: John in Brisbane
Date: 27 Aug 98 - 10:16 PM

WOW - what an erudite reply from BSeed! There is a separate thread about the virtues of music training. I suspect that very few harp players play from music alone, but it sure helps when someone has the backup theory to contribute so substantially to a detailed discussion.

And it's only now I find out that I needn't have spent a king's ransom on chromatic harps over the years, just to get that relative Minor note in the lower octave.

BTW what does a Hohner 12 hole chromatic cost in other countries? The last time I checked I think the list price was about $120 AUD. That's about $US 65 today, and the way the Aussie dollar is tumbling, that'll be $US 50 next week.

PS For any reader living in a country with a reasonably stable currency, now's a great time to visit Australia in terms of bang for your buck, plus all the other great reasons. I can recommend the Woodford Folk Festival, running for 6 days between Christmas and New Year (that's just outside Brisbane in SE Queensland). And I'm sure that Alan, Alison, Bob et al can mention many others.

TGIF John

Subject: RE: A QUESTION FOR ALL YOU HARMONICA PLAYERS.....
From: BSeed
Date: 27 Aug 98 - 09:08 PM

Zorro, I guess you need harps to cover the keys the people you play with like to play in, or to play along with any tapes or whatever. One more possibility would be Bflat, so you can play cross harp in F. Most folk, blues, and bluegrass (and country) are in your keys. Lee Oskar harps are also available in what they call Melody Makers which are made for playing complete melodies in draw style. I play these most of the time, these days, since I learned to find the melody on them. There are (also from Lee Oskar) harmonic minor harmonicas, appropriate for many folk songs--of course it is possible to play minor songs on major key harmonicas, but because of the doubled fifth, you lose the low sixth (on a standard 10 hole C harp, there's no low A, and since the A harmonic minor scale uses the same notes as the C scale, you lose an important note). --seed

Subject: RE: A QUESTION FOR ALL YOU HARMONICA PLAYERS.....
From:
Date: 27 Aug 98 - 01:08 AM

I am not an expert, but it seems to me to depend upon what kind of music you play.

For Blues, you probably have what you need--I would guess A, C, D, G, and E are the major blues keys, and you have them covered for straight and cross.

If you are going into jazz or classical, then you should probably be looking into a chromatic one.

Anyway you can try this link.

http://www.garply.com/harp-l

It might put you in touch with harmonica enthusiasts not in this group.

There is also a newsgroup:

alt.music.harmonica

where you might post your question

Murray

Subject: A QUESTION FOR ALL YOU HARMONICA PLAYERS.....
From: Zorro
Date: 26 Aug 98 - 03:56 PM