Do they use the notes a major scale on a diatonic "blues" harp? If so,what mode is used when they play "cross harp"? Do they "cross harp" when they play straight country? ...ala Charlie McCoy?

I think there's something for us steel players to study here. The uniquely idiomatic bends that harp players use sound like they'd be a natural for us.

A blues harmonica player chooses a harmonica key a fourth from the key of the song. To play the blues in G, you use a C harmonica. The "blowing" notes in a ten hole C harp are from the bottom up:
C E G C E G C E G C
The "draw" notes in the same ten holes are:
D G B D F A B D F A
(How this was determined, I have no idea...)
You can easily scoop the draw notes in the lower and middle register and get a 1/2 step bend (lower), which gives a lot of possibilities.

A pentatonic scale (1,3,5,6,b7) can be played thusly:

3(out) 3(in) 4(in) 5(out) 5(in). This pentatonic scale forms the basis for a lot of blues licks and their variations.

Toots Thielman plays a chromatic harmonica with more available notes, but I still have no idea how he makes it all work...

[This message was edited by Jerry Gleason on 05 November 2000 at 12:29 AM.]

reminds me. I played a 64 hohner push button harmonica in the late 30's. I had already played guitar.

I taught my buddy to play the chords on a Ukelele and we entered The Clevland Plain Dealer Amature show in Cleveland Ohio, where I lived for a time. It was on the Radio WTOM.

What do you know? We won! How could we lose in OHIO. We played "Beautiful Ohio" naturally.

I got my buddy to take guitar lessons where I was taking steel lessons, and then we started playing in bars. I Quit the harmonica as the Steel Guitar was it for me...al

[This message was edited by Al Marcus on 05 November 2000 at 06:19 PM.]