Playing in first position
So I have finally got into first position playing and I sure have allot of thoughts about the subject. I was playing allot lately with the upper octave in cross harp after my seven hole overdraw got better… But I have yesterday started to play with first position and they way that I am practicing is playing blues by ear.
The first thing I started to do is to try to get the blues scale in first position. Only the three draw bent down a half step got me struggling as the rest of the scale was pretty easy. While getting the notes is easy enough, actually playing the blues is harder. One of the harmonica pit falls is to surrender your music creativity to the instrument sweet spots which means playing the easy to do stuff and avoiding the non trivial ones. So I am using the call and response technique by singing a riff that comes to my head and playing it on the harp regardless of the easiness of it.
The next pit fall I found is playing those overblows which are crucial in first position. Getting the 1,4,5 and 6 overblow is really important but I found out that I used to playing cross harp overblows, mainly because in most cases coming from draw is easier for me to get a clean overblow.
So now I am practicing my overblows coming from blow notes. I guess I will not be surprising any one by saying that first position is all about blow notes so it is very important. Sounding bluesy in first position using overblows is real easy and as a matter of fact most of the blues notes are overblows.
As soon as my first position playing will get better I will record a video on it…
Adam Gussow
Carlos Del Junco
Howard Levy
Jasson Ricci
I love reading your posts here and on facebook. Most of my harp practice time is transitory (car, break at work, a quick jam session) and rarely do I find the time and energy to sit down and dig into theory. As a result my lower register cross harp is smooth and natural feeling and I can harp out tunes in 2nd position almost as easily as whistling. My first and third positions are pretty weak however and as a result and I tend to just stick with a few safe notes and chords when I reach the IV and V bars of my blues improv. I realize that I really need to sit down and translate the blues scale to first and third position so my options won’t be as limited. Your approach to learning the is much more technical than mine and helps someone who has always played by ear, to isolate the areas I still need work. Now if I could only find the time….
Thanks and keep up the great posts!
Thanks I am glad your enjoying my post cause it is great to have people to share the journey. Harmonica playing is one of these things that a non harmonica player just cannot understand. I was playing today while walking with my work colleagues to launch and I was practicing my first position playing. The thought that crossed my mind is wether my colleagues are thinking to them self that my playing used to be better a few days ago.
By the way I don’t get much planned practice sessions as well but like you I am using every spear time I have to practice. So driving, waiting, toilet, and much more are turned into practice sessions which are divided into jam playing, scales and technique and playing by ear tunes from my head or joining the radio. I choose between the different practice type according to the mood I am in. Ironically scales and technique are reserved to depressed mode where I can’t play anything else…
I am really starting to fall in love with first position it is really bright and crispy as opposed to the more mellow sound of cross harp…
Hi Guy. First position middle octave blues player from Oz seeks guru. I’m spending time in a similar space….struggling with middle octave first position blues scales. I figure that if I can get over the mechanical difficulties of this that I’ll be able to integrate this seamlessly with the lower octave and upper octave blues scales. The first few weeks dedicated to the middle octave were clunky. Its now starting to fall in to place. I don’t think there are many people who have spent the time to make this work. The benefit is three octaves of blues and I’m determined to make it work. Would appreciate and email.