What are positions on harmonica? (1st, 2nd, 3rd etc) 

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Phew :-)

Thank you so much Conrad. I’m so glad you enjoy the lessons :-)

+Travis Edwards Awesome to hear Travis. Let me know if there is anything else you are struggling with.

Thanks Brad :-)

My pleasure - I'm glad you enjoyed it!

+Al Boeck that is Music to my ears Al :-)

Thank you Lesley! :-)

I will indeed Adam so long as people like you find it useful :-)

Excellent Billy :-)

Good shout Sugar!

+sierradk my pleasure :-)

+Edward Kornele that is what I was aiming for :-)

My pleasure Kenny :-)

My pleasure Tony :-)

No problem Dan :-)

Thanks Paul :-)

+Scooter Lee this video will answer that - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE--vePy5ZSvuc.html

Thanks Tony!

+Hien Tran my pleasure :-)

+youssef ghanem aw thanks Youssef!

Does it make sense now?

+Tomlin Leckie Hi Tomlin. It makes a lot of sense now. Especially since I drew out a harmonica front and labeled all the holes with draw and blow. My only question now is if you are in the second position changing from C to G for example, at 6 blow, how do you compensate for the fact that 9 blow should be F#? Do you have to bend the note?

Thank you for this comment, a bonus after such a great video!

It sounds all Greek to me. I hope I can get by with just 3 positions. Lol

@@larrylee7188 i can play recorder, tenor , bass, a bit of sax, learned piano and i tell you i find this confusing myself ;) what i find hardest is trying not to get out of breath with the in and out... not an easy instrument but i am determined lol not being the youngest 59 and my playing days are 30 yrs ago ...

There's no such thing as "positions". It's all a bunch of garbage humans made up so they can understand it better, but sound waves don't give a shit about our "theories"

@@markc1234golf I just turned 57 years old and I just ordered a harp, we shall see!!

+Eddy Hinojosa awesome to hear Eddy :-)

ditto

+Bobby Cross thanks Bobby!

+Louise Guest hi Louise, I'm glad you liked the explanation. I think the key is to not think about it too much in theory. Positions make most sense in practice when you are actually playing.

Hiya - yes this is definitely a problem at the start. You can cover most scenarios with C, A and D :-)

Franko S, I also played in a cowboy church band. I used 1st position most of the time, but I did use 2nd and 3rd. 3rd position is for songs that are written in a minor key. Are you comfortable playing in 2nd position or is 1st your choice?

Harp in Cb (B) when songs in Gb

(1st) D harp in D ) D E F#G A(5) B C#D (2nd) G harp in D) G(4) A(5) B C#D(1) E F#(3) G (3rd) G harp in A ) A(2) BC D E F G#A .. Chris.. so so so much shared stuff ... but yeah... G is a fourth above D (yet D is also G's 5th) thats 2nd position (draw 2 as the 5th (D on a G harp)... what dont D and G share ? D(1and5) E (2 and 6) F#(3 and7) G (4 and 1) A (5 and 2) B (6and 3) .. C ? (4 in G.. but b7 in D) C# (#4 in G ... 7 in DM) .. b7 of 1(C)...is 4 of G.. and M7 of 1 (C#)... is #4 of G... and that (#4/b5).. is the note between 4 and 5 (tritone)..its the halfway point.. (the teeter totter if you will) its where the tension is... and it is the blues turn around.. so that area... is either 5 b5 4 or 9 b9 8ve (or 2 b2 1... which really is 3rd position) ... making that A the 2 on a G harp... and that A ..can be the 5 and down to G as 4 (I dont know what NYoung is doing) ... but D is G.. outside of that C#(b5) note.. the best prractice anyone can do on any instrument... is just play ascending 4ths C F Bb Eb Ab Db F#(Gb) B E A D G C .. and learn that every note... is a 1 a 4 a 2 a 5.. and all the rest chromatically ..( every 3 in a row.. from anywhere.. is a 251 ( Am DV7 GM) .. everyone is the same thing .. all 12 keys..in one chromatic scale.. it looks crazy difficult.. but its 7th grade stuff...lesson # 1.. it will teach you .. !

My pleasure :-)

Hi Tomlin , thanks so much for your fab lessons..... Could you tell me what key harp to play with Ab music in second position......

Three years and not guy came to help a brother out!! Shame RU-vid. If anyone knows the song , please tell me. I'm wonder too.

A former child star still has bills to pay ;-)

+Craig Martin Craig, of course you are allowed to ask questions. And yes, you are correct. Blues in E would be an A harmonica in 2nd position or D harmonica in 3rd.

+Tomlin Leckie Thanks! I wish we could just use ONE harmonica to play everything: (

I never learned much about playing a chromatic harp but that seems to be the one you can play multiple keys (though I don't know about ALL keys).

Seems as if he lost a number of us? Duh?

If you played 3rd position using a D harp you'd be playing in E minor.

Hi Judy, I'm glad you enjoyed the lesson. The chart shows you what harmonica you would need to play in 2nd position and 3rd position. So if you want to play in the Key of A, you need a D harmonica in 2nd position. Cheers, T

Thanks for the reply. The chart I downloaded from you says 1st position for an A song is A. I get that. Then you say in this lesson (and on the chart) that 2nd position would be an E. But, In your reply you said D would be 2nd position in an A song.. D is my understanding, but again you say E and your chart says E. That's why Im confused.

+Alireza Alavi hmm, I'm not sure, all keys would be useful.

Awesome!

In music, you should always include the first (aka the note you started at) when talking about relationships. So to count the notes in the key of C, you would go C (1), D (2), E (3), F (4), G (5). The reason for this is essentially so that if you have three notes in a chord, you have a name for each of them.

thank you! That cleared it up for me. Key with key is country or folk. I had to scroll down through ten million comments to find this gem. Thank you!

Hi Paul, yes 2nd position is the same this as "cross harp". So playing in the key of G on a C harmonica is 2nd position/cross harp.

Yes, that is 5th position and starts on the 2 blow :-)