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Date: Wed, 20 Feb 2002 12:53:05
From: "Robert Eberwein"
Subject: Re: Notation/Tab

offer a realistic, improved alternative for writing down Beethoven, who famously complained about the "tyranny I'll listen to). It is, for better or worse, it took centuries to even get this far
Glen goes on to show that he does well understand the situation. I just use
his quote, above, as a good synopsis of the ~Save The Notation~ campaign.

First: NO ONE was complaining about Standard Notation. I followed this
thread very closely and the only place you'll find complaints about Standard
Notation is from the camp that thinks it needs defense. It doesn't, and no
one said it does. Nobody. You'd have to take a reply out of context to think
so [or read a reply to a reply to a reply]. No one who is seeking a good
harp tab is knocking standard notation. Ok? Ok.

If you can read music [and it's pretty easy, so let's not turn this into
cryptic rune stones] here's what you get:

- - a note/chord, and how long to hold it. For example; You get what pitches
to sound, for how long, and in relation to the other tones.

So let's say you read the following ~music~ and write it down to have in
front of you as : C [hold 2 beats, E [hold one beat, G [hold 1 beat], C
[hold 4 beats].

Now that you have ~read~ the notation, the problem that we were trying to
talk about still exists. Dig? You've already ~read~ the staff and know all
the notes on your harp. You still can't play ~Rhapsody In Blue~ on your Db
harp. This is not a shortcoming of standard notation, and no one said it
was. It's not a shortcoming at all, but part of the fun stuff that a
diatonic harp player has to address. Many a time I've figured out a
complicated riff by plunking it out on keys, writing it down in standard
notation- and later, writing it out in tab so that I can play it on any
harp. If I left it untabbed, I would only be tabbing it out [SLOWLY], in my
head [maybe], before playing it on my Db harp. Okay!? Anyone dispute that?

So we are looking for a tab system that incorporates meter, rhythm pitch- -
all the goodies, and works for every harp. The reason we want this is
because every harp, in terms of it's scales, is laid out the same way- and
it SEEMS within our grasp.

What about this Mike? How about using the five bars in conjunction with some
other tabulature? Like color? The 3 primary colors could be the tonic, 4th
and 5th. So we'd see a little red 2, for instance, and know it's the 2 draw
[for 2nd position]. If it was a ~red 2~, on top of the quarter note in the
third space, we'd know- - -

Yes. No. I see that already has problems [and starts to sound like one of
those non-productive ways to learn piano], but I do think that there might
be something to combining the normal staff with color/tab or numbers/symbols
[but we must make distinctions between, say, 3Draw, and 10-Blowbend- other
than just staff position, as it will differ harp to harp]. All I know is,
for now, I am only thinking about this for 1st, 2nd and 3rd position.
Whatever is designed it must be able to be shifted slightly to work for
those 3 positions. All harps, 3 positions.

What would be ideal is if we had 10, consecutive symbols that we could use
for the holes [1, 2, 3. - - A, B, C, do re, mi being already taken]. I
considered greek symbols but ~alpha~, for instance, is too similar to ~A~.
Then it would be the harpers job to know what a red ~%~ meant. There's be no
need for draw/blow symbols as in would be
incumbent on the player to know that stuff [once shown through the key
signature what harp to use, and it was pretty high C, and that it was part
of the ~blue~ chord, and the number 10- - you'd have to know that could only
mean ~blow~]. Again, the minimum knowledge necessary to the harper being
knowing the 1, 4, 5 chords/notes and where they are on the harp [2nd
position: 123 draw, 1,2,3/4,5,6/7,8,9,10 blow, 456 draw].

Just raw ideas. Admittedly nothing useful yet. Maybe someone can build on
it.

For the record, tab is nothing to be ashamed of, and isn't the ~capo~ of
musical theory. Vocal/choral music, for centuries now, has continued to use
tabbed symbols for some vocal parts, super-imposed on the normal notation.
Most lute players, while learning a piece, use some tab to distinguish
between a note on one string or another [where there are many
possibilities]. Unlike guitar or harp, I doubt any lute player considered
ONLY using tab, but that's more a comment on rock & roll/commercial music
than on a this pseudo-controversy.

Gee. I hope we don't now have a controversy over whether or not it's a
controversy. In the words of Gandhi: ~It's not. It's not. It's not.~

Robb [call me Ludwig]

www.MP3.com/robbingham

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