~ Americana harmonica ~

~ exploring the blue notes and 'crossharp' ~

aural physics of a blues 'cross' harp

built in 'C' ... looks like this :)

hole
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
blow
C
E
G
C
E
G
C
E
G
C
draw
D
G
B
D
F
A
B
D
F
A

draw bend blues

.
F

Bb

Db
.
.
.
.
.
.

'energize your learning in life through education, exploration and discovery with music ...'

'Harmonica' in a nutshell. The instrument we know today as a harmonica, also as a blues harp, was invented back in the early 19th century in Germany. It's ease of portability balanced with its abilities to mimic the nuances of our voice; both with talking and singing, and articulated rhythmically by breath into any syncopation we ever might imagine, combine together to make the harmonica a rather complete lil' beast of an instrument for playing both single line melodies and triad styled harmonizations; pure, one of a kind aural Americana magic thanks to the harp's own character colors when sounded in musical context through all of our Americana genres :). Add in the 'harps' ability to 'bend' notes, to lower the pitches in between its 'built in' diatonic pitches, becoming Americana's own blue notes, makes for a broad palette of available colors for the creative artist. So all in all, a pretty neat, style / genre crossing inventive music making instrument that fits in a coat pocket :)

Americana melody. Harmonica artists of today can inhabit and recreate Americana's earliest musical traditions; a combination of folk music and the blues, combining to provide a wide creative canvas to work. And while the pitches for creating memorable melody lines for both styles live in the exact same harp, to get to the core of the blue notes and licks, requires a different set of physical skills and approach to the instrument as described just above as 'bending' a note.

Straight up diatonic folk melodies are prolly the easier of the two, requiring breath in and out to make the pitches. Blues harp requires 'bending' notes to find the blue notes and blues 'hue' in relation to the common supportive V7 chords of many blues songs. I'd imagine having a mix of both under the fingers would provide a good palette of colors. There's a chromatic harp too, which stylewise might lean a cat towards jazz.

A gillion diatonic melodies. The notes to play diatonic melodies live right in any harp, just a matter of finding them. Breath establishes the rhythm of the notes. By defining a bit of the musical styles you dig, decide on a melody you know and love and master its pitches and character tones by ear. Once we learn one melody solid, and even start to jazz it up a bit, there's usually new melodies that just sort of come right along :)

Included diatonic melodies. Included are 50 diatonic Americana melodies to choose from, pick one an master it best you can, maybe use an i-phone to record your progress ... ? Play this melody for your mentor, or any music lesson, and get some feedback and ideas for moving forward ... knowing there's way lots of cool melodies to explore and interpret. A diatonic harp.

So, we still have to our notes by ear, but knowing it by the theory too, how the notes we want to sound are positioned within a key center, just makes for a solid educational beginning point, a perspective of art and theory together to forever build upon. Then we each just have to shed to figure out how to sound the music of our imaginations on a harp.

Crossharp in Americana Blues. Due to manufacturing intricacies and in 'theory', 'crossharp' is the way we trick a harmonica built in one letter name key to play all manner of 'Americana blues musical coolness' while the band plays in a different key ... yikes :) 'Special 20 C.'

Pitches.

hole
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
blow
C
E
G
C
E
G
C
E
G
C
draw
D
G
B
D
F
A
B
D
F
A

draw bend blues

.
F

Bb

Db
.
.
.
.
.
.

Blues crossharp. Common practice says we use a harp built in 'C' and 'cross its notes' to play blues in 'G.' By 'drawing air in' and bending at the two hole, the 'Two Draw Bend' lick, gives us the b7 blue note of 'F', with the tonic note 'G' the next note up, sounded by blowing out thru the three hole.

This 'b7 to tonic lick' is a true honk of a riff, quite naturally at the center of the blues by proximity; a tension just before resolution. There's a few other essential 'interval licks'; 'minor 3 / major 3' and surely the '#4 to 5' tritone motions, both by half step. These notes, found in between the diatonic pitches and are the locations of the blue notes built into any harp, and all instruments for that matter too, crossed or not :) !

Authors note. I do not play harp and to figure this architecture out I used masking tape to block off the holes for certainty and was also sitting at a keyboard playing appropriate changes to measure the intervals and their degree of blueness in relation to standard tuning.

'Knowing that its pitches are physically located in the same places on a harmonica built in different keys, and that the blues love the guitar keys too; so 'E, A, G, cats might get a few harps to cover a few keys, one of which probably will become a fave.

That the technique to sound out the cross harp blue notes is the same regardless of the key of the harp is just cool and good to know too :) 'Two draw with proper bend' will always cross as 'b7' regardless of the key of the harp. So grab a 'C' harp to play crossharp on an Americana blues hue'd song with the band playing in the key of 'G', and what the harp don't know won't hurt one bit, (that the band's not playing in 'C.') Promise :)

hole
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
blow
C
E
G
C
E
G
C
E
G
C
draw
D
G
B
D
F
A
B
D
F
A

draw bend blues

.
F

Bb

Db
.
.
.
.
.
.

'Bending' notes on a harmonica. One way of bending notes down in pitch on a harp is achieved by 'squeezing' the air flow on one hole to physically increase the 'draw' air pressure on the harp's reeds. A way to do this is to draw air in through one hole, thus 'draw', and the 'bend' is created by 'puckering' down to strongly draw air in, which pulls the reed out of its built in tuning and 'flattens' the pitch, giving us the 'blue notes' in relation to the key center of the song we are playing.

Sound a bit tricky to do ... ? It is, but if u love blues harp, just work it and goo things will happen. Once ya got the trick, you'll hear it in the pitches and then forever after know the magic, and it'll work on any 10 hole blues harmonica that comes along. Then there's the 12 hole, chromatic harmonica, often with a 1/2 step pitch shifter button, which can dramatically up the melody game all while including the blue notes too; looks like this.

The 'theory physics' of 'blues cross' harp. What follows next is shared by Cooper White. In creating this chart, White outlines how harmonicas individually built into each of the 12 pitches tunings blend with the equal temper system's instruments (guitars, pianos, horns etc.), to match up key centers for creating blues' hue'd and yet consonant sounding musics together. Here's White's chart of key center ~ cross harp key relationships. Note the 'cy5' circle of letters in the center ? Example 1.

Cool with the theory of 'blues cross' harp? So yea it gets through all 12 pitches, crossing over by perfect 4th to accomodate the harmonica's magics and finding the blue notes within the diatonic tones.

"One good thing about music; when it hits you, you feel no pain."

wiki ~ Bob Marley

Bending notes on a harmonica. According to those in the know, when we bend a note on a harp the pitch goes ... down. Crazy huh ? But that's the case so it seems. Not being a 'harpist' meself, not all that sure of the physical mechanics of all this.

Thus; 'two draw with a bend' gives us the 'flat 7' essential blue note. For many artists, this lick / technique / pitch is a pillar of blues harp.

Thus; 'three draw with a bend' gives us the 'flat 3' / the minor third of the key of the song. In our equal temper tuning system both of our 3rd's are a bit wonky. The major 3rd is plain sharp, by six cents or so. The minor 3rd is flat by a few cents, so needs a push up a wee bit. Find your sweet spots by ear. Knowing that rubbing major and minor 3rds together brings the essence of Americana blues, there's a hundred licks from 100 different cats, on all instruments, that bring this often 'hair raising' color.

Thus; 'four draw with a bend' gives us the '# 4 / b5 / tritone' of the key of the song. Know as the 'diablo de musica' from the olden days, this is one powerful note that helps make the blues the blues. And there's a 'two pitch tritone' we use for making V7 / dominant chords. So ... very very handy to say the least.

'2 draw bend'
'3 draw bend'
'4 draw bend'

Cool ? Once the technique for bending comes together for you, sky's the limit for searching the nuances of blue notes between the pitches. May take a while but it'll happen if you want it to happen.

"Blues is the roots. Everything else is the fruit."

Review. So with this in mind and thinking U want to play some blues harp, master the root note of 'two draw' and find a way to bend it down to 'flat 7.' Same for the 'three and four draw with bends.' Just ask around, seek a ye hall find yes ? These pitches should be enough to get ya started, master them and start sitting in, jamm with records or the radio.

References. References for this page come from the included bibliography from school and the bandstand, made way easier by the folks along the way. In addition, books of classical literature; from Homer, Stendahl and Laudurie to Rand, Walker and Morrison and of today, provided additional life puzzle pieces to the musical ones, to shape the 'art' page and discussions of this book. Special thanks to PSUC professor Dr. Y. Guibbory, who 40 years ago now provided the spark to ignite a love within me of the weaving of the history of the arts into the evolutions of Americana musical art.

"Life is about creating yourself."
wiki ~ Bob Dylan

Find an e-book mentor. Always good to have a mentor when learning about things new to us. And with music and its magics, nice to have a friend or two ask questions and collaborate with. Seek and ye shall find. Local high schools, libraries, friends and family, musicians in your home town ... just ask around, someone will know someone who knows someone about music who can help you with your studies of the musical arts with this e-book.

Intensive tutoring. Luckily for musical artists like us, the learning dip of the 'covid years' can vanish quickly with intensive tutoring. For all disciplines; including all the sciences and the 'hands on' trade schools, that with tutoring, learning blossoms to 'catch us up.' In music ? The 'theory' of making musical art is built with just the 12 unique pitches, so easy to master with mentorship. And in 'practice ?' Luckily old school, the foundation that 'all responsibility for self betterment is ours alone.' Which in music, and same for all the arts, means to do what we really love to do ... to make music :)

 

"These books, and your capacity to understand them, are just the same in all places. Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed, is more important than any other one thing."

wiki ~ Abraham Lincoln

Academia references of Alaska. And when you need university level answers to your questions and musings, and especially if you are considering a career in music and looking to continue your formal studies, begin to e-reach out to the Alaska University Music Campus communities and begin a dialogue with some of Alaska's finest resident maestros !

University of Alaska

University of Alaska Anchorage Music

University of Alaska Fairbanks Music Education

Formal academia references near your home. Let your fingers do the clicking to search and find the formal music academies in your own locale.

"Who is responsible for your education ... ?

U

'We energize our learning in life through natural curiosity and exploration, and in doing so, create our own pathways of discovery.'

Comments or questions ?

jacmuse@ak.net

'energize your own learning in life through education, exploration and discovery ...'

comments or questions ...?

~ understandyourmusic@gmail.com ~