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Sunken Treasure (harmonica)?


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For a laugh I picked up a harmonica and figured I'd play around with it. Does anyone know where I can find a "tab" to the mouth harp sections of Sunken Treasure from Jeff's solo shows? Its a blast to goof off with, but I am ready to settle down and try to learn some stuff. Do mouth harps even have "tabs"?

 

Thanks!

--MattZ

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For a laugh I picked up a harmonica and figured I'd play around with it. Does anyone know where I can find a "tab" to the mouth harp sections of Sunken Treasure from Jeff's solo shows? Its a blast to goof off with, but I am ready to settle down and try to learn some stuff. Do mouth harps even have "tabs"?

 

Thanks!

--MattZ

 

There is a form of tablature (A number [hole] and an arrow [direction]) but I haven't looked for nor seen it on the various internets.

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My one suggestion would be to make sure you have the right key harmonica for the given song. Depending on the song, and type of sound you're going for, the key of the harmonica isn't always identical to the key of the song.

 

Sunken Treasure is in the key of D I believe, so depending on the type of playing on it (it's been awhile since I heard this so I can't recall) you may need one of the following Harmonicas:

 

Straight Harp = D Harmonica (good fot folky Neil Young type playing and probably the one Jeff uses on this one)

 

Cross Harp = G (good for bluesy pentatonic type notes)

 

Slant Hrarp = C (ideal for minor bluesy playing) I found out about this style from Paul Westerberg when he picked up my G Harmonica and asked me to play a blues in A. I thought it was going to sound weird, but damn if it didn't sound really great. The guy can really wail on it too, I just wish he would play more harmonica on his records.

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On guitar or on harp? There is a nice tab of the guitar part around here somewhere and I figured out how to play it on harp but, I have not the faintest idea how I would tab it or anything. Try playing along to a recording of it. Besides, playing songs exactly how they sound on the album is lame, add some soul!

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I play a bit of harmonica. It's definately in the key of D. Jeff also has his guitar in Drop D tuning. Just listen to the recording (IATTBYH DVD) and you can pick it out. Okay...got my harmonica. Goes from (holes) 5 to 6 blowing out, then suck in and bend twice on 5 and blow out (sounds like wah-oo-wah hoo for the bend part). Then bend in and blow out on 5 (wee hoo). Then in on 4 and back out. Now suck in and bend twice on 4 and blow out, following the same progression from 5 to 4, but this time go from 4 to 3. If you play around with that, hopefully you can get an idea. Hope this helps!

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I play a bit of harmonica. It's definately in the key of D. Jeff also has his guitar in Drop D tuning. Just listen to the recording (IATTBYH DVD) and you can pick it out. Okay...got my harmonica. Goes from (holes) 5 to 6 blowing out, then suck in and bend twice on 5 and blow out (sounds like wah-oo-wah hoo for the bend part). Then bend in and blow out on 5 (wee hoo). Then in on 4 and back out. Now suck in and bend twice on 4 and blow out, following the same progression from 5 to 4, but this time go from 4 to 3. If you play around with that, hopefully you can get an idea. Hope this helps!

 

Awesome! I am going to give this a shot. Thanks for the help...

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would that D harmonica also work for she's a jar?

Prolly not. You'd want a G but if you only have a D, stretch your vocal cords and play D, F#m,G

It could work though as long as there are no C's in the harmonica line because there is no C on a D harmonica

Edited by mfwahl
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hmm, so how many harmonicas do i need to play most harmonica riffs..... generally speaking

It's by key. It's good to have a C, G, D, A at least. If you're deadset on using a harmonica for a song and you don't have the right harmonica, you can always change the key of the song using a capo or music theory.

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I thought the "new" version of Sunken Treasure was in E (Drop D capo 2)...?

It is. There's a great tab of it on here. Thanks again to whoever tabbed that out. It is like sugar with sugar on top.

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A Honher Blues Harp. Pretty cheap and good sound, I wouldn't even call it a beginner harp. (Although, I've never bought a high end harmonica). Or the Big River Harp has a good sound too but it's plastic comb makes it tough to bend notes, the wood is sweet.

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I'm with kaysettes on all that was said. I have a d, a, g and c harmonicas. I think I'd also get an f, but at around 20 bucks apiece...All of mine are honer blues harps except for a Lee Oskar which is the A and I don't really care as much for that one. Remember to breathe warm air through them first and play lightly or you can bend one of the reeds; adios 20 bucks.

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That's beyond me. I would suggest either investing in some harp lessons to learn about 2nd position, 3rd position and whatnot, or dish out less than $20 for an E. Either one will pay off in the end. (As for me, I would buy the E.)

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