Re: [Harp-L] new diatonic tuning for chromatic play with chords

[Roger Myerson <myerson@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I am grateful to Mr Plotnikov for his assurance that overblowing is not 
as hard as most think.

On the difficulties of bending, he is off the mark, as he has apparently 
not noticed that the bends in the tuning that I described are all simple 
halftone bends in a wholetone interval, unlike the Richter 3rd hole to 
which he refers.

On the qualities of 5-hole octaves, I would beg to differ based on my 
own experience having played a 10-hole fourkey harp with 5-hole octaves 
for over two years.  Although the instrument has a range of only two 
octaves, it has enabled me to make better music than I was ever able to 
achieve with Richter and paddy-Richter diatonics, solo-tuned diatonics 
and chromatics, and diminished diatonics.
My best music may still be much inferior to Mr Plotnikov's, but I am 
sure that that is because of my own limitations, not the instrument's.

> Two octaves over 10 holes? Too stretched. Overblows are not as hard as most think. Just a bit of practice. You can try valves. For my taste
> and 10 years of playing straight bends with correct pitch on 3rd hole are much harder to master than 4-6 overblows. I'd watch to something
> like Powerbender (but I dislike 3rd octave of powerbender). Anyway minimum overblows (or valved blow bends), no overdraws (or valved draw bends) for chromatic playing.
>
> --
> Thanks, Boris Plotnikov

Here is the layout for a 10-hole twokey harp that plays the G and C 
major keys (as well as A harmonic minor) without bending and that has a 
playable G major chord and A minor chord:

BLOW  D  F# G# A  C  E  F# G# A  C
DRAW  E  F  G  B  D  D# F  G  B  D

http://www.slidemeister.com/forums/index.php?topic=1205.msg62566#msg62566
http://4keyharps.wordpress.com/

--

Roger B. Myerson, Glen A. Lloyd Distinguished Service Professor
Department of Economics, University of Chicago
1126 East 59th Street, Chicago, IL 60637
Phone: 773-834-9071, Fax: 773-702-8490
http://home.uchicago.edu/~rmyerson/