Journeying afar might be an occasion to review archival issues of the Banjo Newsletter- if available. For size reference below, note the small yellow van traversing the background.

Like the pyramids, the mysteries of the 5-string are sometimes slow to reveal themselves. Unlike the pyramids, banjos originated in West Africa, far from the parched desert sands seen above.

When sojourning through distant lands, streetside musicians are not infrequently encountered. Pause to hear their music.

If you prefer to travel stateside rather than abroad, there are plenty of places where Bluegrass musicians can reconnect with their inner hillbilly roots.

From the BRC: Enjoy your vacation journeys this summer wherever your plans may take you.

A harmonica can add a country blues flair to any acoustic music performance.  The key to mastering this diminutive musical instrument is to understand its inherent features and proper model selection. A classical chromatic or slide harmonica has a button that allows the musician to play all semitones as would be found on the keyboard of a piano. A diatonic harmonica, however, is tuned to a specific key such as C, D, or G, and can generally be intune only with that specific key. The quirky trick to playing blues tunes with this tiny hand-held instrument is to understand manipulating the notes available on the designated key prominently marked on the selected instrument. Hence, a diatonic C, D or E, etc. harmonica can readily play simple melodic folksy tunes in its designated key such “Home, Home, On the Range” or  “There`s No Place Like Home.” The blues scale, however, can be only attained by what is called  the “cross-harp” or “cross-key” technique.

In order to play a funky sounding harmonica to accompany a blues song, the harmonica selected must be in the subdominant key of the song. For example, in the key of C, the C chord is the so-called dominant chord of the tune; and the F chord is the so-called subdominant chord of the tune.  Lastly, the G chord would be called the tonic chord of the key of C. To access the blues scale of notes, however, an F harmonica would be played to accompany a song in the key of C. Parenthetically, in the key of G, a C harmonica would be selected to provide the obligato blues scale for the performance. Again, this quirky but fundamental cross-harp or cross-key strategy is vital to producing the signature blues note selection and melodic runs for the performance.

The BRC musician primarily uses the Hohner Special 20 (Progressive) harmonica for these tunes, and he carries around about a half-dozen of them in different keys in a hip pack when enroute to a gig. As seen in the below photo, the BRC banjo picker (sporting a hip pack) readies to play a harmonica solo at a sunny springtime park festival. His son plays guitar far right.

Check-out You Tube for Sonny Terry cross-harp playing his electrifying and whooping rendition of “Lost John” or John Sebastian playing a bluesy harmonica solo at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. The BRC musician missed this latter live performance having attended only the 1964 Newport Folk Festival in his youth. In a brief interview a couple of years later with John Sebastian, the young BRC  journalist/college newspaper reporter, learned that Sebastian had grown up with a father who was a classical harmonica player. Bob Dylan does not cross harp but plays mostly a Hohner Marine Band harmonica in the same key as his guitar, a common practice in the folk music genre. Dylan positions his mouth harp with an around-the-neck harmonica holder, so he can simultaneously player guitar. The BRC musician still has a similar but somewhat tarnished harmonica holder purchased during his college days of yesteryear.

When playing at jams, the BRC musician lines-up his harmonicas alphabetically in his banjo case for easy access as seen above. Although he regularly washes out his Special 20 harmonicas, Hohner recommends to not soak the instrument.

To hear a blues harp solo by the BRC musician, enter boogie in the search engine and tap enter. Scroll down the page to find the sound file to “McBaine Boogie” which is performed in the key of G. Play the sound file and experiment accompanying it with a C harmonica.

From the BRC: Happy cross-harping, y`all.