Brendan Power & Alternative Harmonicas Forum

Hello,I recently bought a set of powerbenders. I also bought the instruction book to go along with learning this tuning. I really like the book and cd. I like how it shows all the keys and positions you can play. I do not know anything really about music. My question is,is there any easy way that I can say play the G harp and use a scale from the book which is for A harp and know what key I am playing on the G harp? Basically like if there was a powerbender book for each key of harp. I know all the note patterns are the same on all the keys but I would like to be able to know all the keys I can play for whichever key harp I want to play. How can I transpose the powerbender book for the other keys? Thanks for any help and suggestions.
Jack

Hi Jack, I'm glad you're enjoying PowerBender tuning

Unfortunately the sheet music examples in the book can't be transposed. However:

1. Simply read the TAB under the notes score. It works for any key harp!

2. You can transpose the music tracks from the CD. Just save the tracks as MP3s and put them in a music transpose software. There are lots of phone apps for this, as well as Audacity on PC.

Hope that helps! Brendan

Hi Brendan,thanks for your speedy reply. Let me rephrase my question in case it makes a difference. I dont have the book in front of me at the moment,but say the tabs in example 5 say that for that example I would be playing in Eminor with the A harp. If I played the same example but on a c harp how can I figure what key I would be playing in? Maybe the answer is still the same? This would be playing the examples but not to the cd. Thanks

A tab that gets you the scale of Em on an A-harp will get you the scale of Gm on a C-harp, provided you use harps tuned in the same tuning system each.

This will work as well for any scale in any key. You can count that out easily on the circle of fifth.



For other modes than Major (= ionian) and (Natural) Minor (= aeolian) you can use this version:



And here you can find a simple transposition tool which is easily to make by oneself:
viewtopic.php?p=1349#p1349

And a fine thing on top: You even must not necessarily be able to read sheetmusic to use the circle of fifths. But it does no harm either if you can.


dear greetings
triona

Mind out: The picture of the modal scales shows German notation.
H = B (major), h = Bm (minor), B = Bb, b = Bbm, Es/es, As/as = Eb, Ab etc, Fis = F# = F sharp, Ges = Gb = G flat etc
But I think you can find the pic in English notation as well on wikipedia.


grez tri

Thank you all. With this info and explanation I think I can figure out what I am looking for. I thought the circle of fifths had something to do with it.