There are some really awesome jump blues songs that don't necessarily have harmonica in them. I often practice my improvising on certain songs that I have already figured what key the song in.

I think an awesome addition to the site would be to have a page where you could post a song and have some of the more knowledgable members of the website post in on what key the song might be in, that way it might be easier to narrow down what harp to use, especially if you predominantly play in 2nd or cross position. Obviously this probably would be most helpful to beginners who haven't exactly trained their ear to figure it out quickly....like me...lol.

Just a thought.

If anyone reads this and might want to help out, I'm trying to narrow down the key to Marcia Ball's "Sugar Boogie"....it's on youtube.

Thanks a ton in advance

Try humming ONE NOTE that harmonizes througout the song. While you are humming, use a keyboard or something to find out what note you're humming. That's the key of the song. (I haven't tried this very much, so I can't vouch for it, really.) I tried this with Marcia's "Sugar Boogie" and I think the song is in F. (Bb harp for crossharp.)

You can run into complications using this method if the song is in a minor key.

Check this out:
[www.youtube.com]#!

Well, heck! I can't get the link to work!
Paste "VIDEO LESSON: Finding the key to any song" into the You Tube search box and look for a 34 minute video with a black man in a nice striped shirt sitting at a keyboard.



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 05/29/2013 01:04AM by gene.

Is this the link you're trying to post, Gene?

VIDEO LESSON Finding the key to any song

Good video, by the way. I encourage everyone who struggles to find the key to a song to take the time to watch it.

I have a rather extensive listing of blues albums with harp and the key being played, but am loathe to put it here as it represents someone else's work. Send me a message with the song you want or else put it in requests and if I have a listing of it I'll let you know. The list is album based so the name of the album would make it easier

Yeah, that's the one! Thanks, Deb.
The embedding thing ain't working for me. I wonder if it's because I'm using Firefox.

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=-zm9-YtDGqA[/video]

Nick:
Why can't I embed videos??



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 05/30/2013 05:54AM by gene.

That's wierd. I use Firefox, too.
I used the "Insert URL" button, copy and pasted the URL, then left out the colon in the title (after "VIDEO LESSON" ) when prompted to enter a description (thinking that perhaps the colon could cause a problem) and it came up fine.

I don't know why you can't post videos... since EarthDogHarpin was able to I don't think it is a site issue.

I took the youtube link directly and pasted it into the video link... If I took the shared link from the youtube video it didn't work though.

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nn2FB1P_Mn8[/video]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/30/2013 07:43PM by djlactose.

I noticed the URL for the shared link is different, so I tried the link directly from You Tube. Still no luck.


Edit:
I went to the video ON YOU TUBE, right-clicked in the video, clicked "copy video URL", came back here, clicked the piece-of-film icon, pasted the URL in that box, and here is the result:
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=-zm9-YtDGqA[/video]

Now, I'll try copying the URL from the address bar and click the icon:
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zm9-YtDGqA[/video]

Strange... I've tried that, as well (I think.), but it worked this time! ??? ???



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 05/30/2013 11:06PM by gene.

Anyway, Jebster,
Does your Bb harp work with it?