Just thought I'd mention that, according to Jon Gindick(and I have to agree); it is against the law for beginners to be playing notes above hole 6.

The thing is, there are sooo many tabs marked "beginner" which not only include many of these notes' but contain ONLY these notes.

I don't mind the odd 7 draw but if some of you could dumb it down a bit I'm sure I would'nt be the only beginner to thank you.

Don't get me wrong guys, I love what you do and I think this site is fantastic. But I need a few popular classics that I can get my mouth around.

Just keep in mind I'm an Aussie and so haven't heard or been exposed to a lot of what you US users regard as classic. Mind you that only leaves 5 or 6 billion other songs to dumb down for us.

Again, I love what you do. But if you could think about the true beginner from time to time

I'm not sure why 7 and up is an issue. On higher keys it can be tricky (the trick=more air), but C and under seem fine.

I think the general rule of thumb here is that anything that doesn't require bends is beginner level, although I'm sure we all have different definitions of what is beginner/intermediate/expert. More often than not I just leave that section blank.

The big problem with what you're asking for is that you won't find a whole lot of songs that don't require either higher notes or bends. The reason a lot of those songs are higher to begin with is to bump it up an octave so a song isn't a mess of bends. Take a look, for example, at this tab...

[harptabs.com]

...and tell me which of those two versions you think would be easier to play.

That's not to say nothing exists right in your sweet spot, but finding something that exists there and is something you know and would like to play-- that might take a bit of digging.

I see your point. But ya know what? I actually like the version you've posted in 12th position. After having a few goes at it I recon I can try getting rid of some of those 3 draw bends and get something that sounds something like it. Then I can play around with it.

I can bend most notes but getting the exact eighth is far beyond me. However I am learning from jon gindick so everything is "bluesified". I love bending the simple songs I've learned and that's the thing, I need to learn the basic tune and then when I've got that down, I play around with it. Maybe I'm even hitting those eights or whatever's. That's the joy for me.

But like you say, to find something in my sweet spot takes some digging. I was just hoping to encourage you guys towards my own selfish ends.
I'll keep digging and keep finding stuff thanks to all who tab:-)

Cheers
Mike

Well maybe you don't need to stick to beginner, then =) Those are loose suggestions, not directives. And again, I think the rule of thumb is anything with bends=at least intermediate, so there may be plenty of songs that are in your preferred range that require just a few bends that aren't labeled beginner. Anytime I post something with just a few easy bends I don't really know what to call it, so I leave it blank. Like this one:

[harptabs.com]

And look at that, it doesn't get higher than 5 draw! (if you don't know the song just youtube it, because woa is he who has not discovered Nick Drake).

Anyway, what I did when I began and what I'd do if I were you is ignore the difficulty level and just look for songs you like. If a song is easy to reasonably challenging, play it. If a song is too hard, come back to it later. There are songs I thought I would never in my life be able to play that, after a month or so, I went back to and found them easy all of a sudden.

teal deer: just play what you like, the difficulty suggestions are just that, suggestions.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/12/2013 12:43PM by ,,,.

As far as Gindick referring to the upper end of the harp as being more advanced, I believe he simply means that you should learn to improvise at the low end and middle, first...THEN learn your way around the upper end. This is not because the upper end is harder; it's because it's different and you can't learn it all at once. Since the low end and middle are more useful to blues improv, that's where you start. As far as memorizing a tune, it doesn't matter where on the harp you play.

Thanks guys, as always you encourage and inspire me.

I'm going straight to YouTube. Not that I haven't before, but I'm always looking at "how to". I will now try to educate myself with "the very talented".

Cheers
Mike

If you go HERE, you can find a lot of instruction from Adam Gussow. He started posting lessons about 5 years ago, so you'll have to do some scrolling to get to them.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/13/2013 06:07PM by gene.