[Harp-L] Intonation and bending/overblow notes , iceman's summertime



Cletus likens himself to the boy who cries out that the Emperor has no clothes. But he's just belatedly jumping on a bandwagon unless it was him who made a post several months back leveling a similar criticism at Sandy Weltman's performance at a recent SPAH or Buckeye.

The intonation challenges on a chromatic are much smaller than they are on a diatonic. But diatonic harmonica has an expressiveness and a vocal quality that, in my opinion, the chromatic harmonica lacks. Part of the attraction of diatonic harmonica stems from the plasticity of the pitches, the very thing that makes rigorously in-tune playing difficult.

The diatonic harmonica is more like a trumpet or sax than a piano where intonation is concerned. Correct intonation on any of these instruments is never a given. And I agree with Rosco that there is plenty of jazz that is widely acknowledged as great where the intonation of the trumpet or sax is not accurate. Some listeners focus on the intonation or other technical aspects of the playing, while others focus on the emotional content, the dynamics, and other aspects of the performance. But I would concede that if the intonation is too off on too many of the notes, the listening experience is ruined for me regardless of how great the performance is in other respects. It's a matter of your threshold, and yours will differ from mine as mine differs from Rosco's (he's more forgiving of intonation errors than I am).

A diatonic is never going to sound like a chromatic, and I believe that is a good thing. For certain listeners among us, though, the sound of a diatonic on certain kinds of non-blues music such a jazz or swing, even if very well played, will *never* be satisfying. It's not just a matter of intonation. As Richard Hunter has pointed out many times, there are differences in timbre among the open notes and those produced by the various bending techniques.

My opinion is that these timbral differences can be attenuated, but not eliminated, through diligent practice. The differences are inherent; they stem from the structure of the instrument. But my further opinion is that the intonation challenges, while difficult, are not insurmountable. Howard Levy may be a poor example because he is always straining against the outer limits of his technique. A better example might be P.T. Gazell, whose intonation is very, very good despite playing an instrument, the partially valved diatonic, that requires an exceptionally refined technique to play in tune.

I'm not disagreeing with Cletus, despite what I have written above. Larry's "vision of moving all notes created on the regular diatonic harmonica into equality" is, I believe, a worthy goal and a noble pursuit. I would agree, as I hope Larry would, that he still has substantial work to do in this regard, as do I.

George







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