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CROSS HARP PLAYING - OVERVIEW When you play cross harp style you use the same harmonica to play in a different key. Instead of playing in the named key of the harmonica you will centre the tune in a different area of the harmonica and so cover a different scale (area) of notes. If you have a C harmonica, you can pretend it is a G and play on it in the second position, one hole higher than you normally would and beginning on draw instead of blow, so you are now mainly playing in the area G to G (instead of C to C) and so that your tune now finishes on G instead of C. Musically, this is possible because, for blues or rock style playing you do not need the sharp on the seventh note of the scale. It sounds contrived instead of bluesy.  Therefore to play in G in cross harp style you do not need the F to be sharpened nor in D, do you need the C to be sharpened so that to play in any key using sharps you can use the key which has one fewer sharps than you think you need (or one more flat if in a flat or natural key - viz. C or F). LET`S MAKE IT EASY Even experienced players who play this way already can sometimes get confused as to what harp they will actually need, so we have put a table below which will help, and later a rule of thumb (and four fingers!) so you can work it out when you are on the road and cannot see the diagram below. To top of page Navigation buttons Harp List order or ask Order info To Play in Db C# Ab Eb Bb F C G D A E B F# Gb Use This harp Gb F# Db Ab Eb Bb F C G D A E B LET YOUR FINGERS GIVE YOU THE ANSWER

In the diagram above we have simply visualised the key you want to play in as being written on your little finger and the letter names leading up to it on the preceding fingers. Thus by counting backwards through the alphabet till you reach your thumb, you find you need a key C harp in order to play in key G using your C harp cross harp style. Two extra rules, - if you go back through the alphabet after passing A you must carry on backwards from G again. (We only use the letters A to G to describe the notes, after all). For example, if you want to play in C cross harp style, you put C on your little finger right hand and read off C - B -A - G -F from right to left on your fingers, so the answer is an F harp to play in C. (when you passed A you had to reverse back from G again). This is because we only use notes labelled A to G in music.

Also if the key you are after has a flat in it (and remember this includes key F, as well as the ones with a flat in the title) your harp key to use will be called something flat when you reach it. So for example if you want to play in A flat, count backwards to your thumb A flat G F E D flat. If you want to play in F count back F E D C B flat flat. Here are the rules again Put the key you need on your little finger and by going backwards in the alphabet your thumb will tell you the harp to use. While counting back through the alphabet, if you pass key A your next finger will be G If you need a flat key (and this includes F as well as the keys with flat in the title) your final answer will also need to include the word "flat".

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