Re: [Harp-L] raising a reed's pitch

[Slim Heilpern <slim@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi David -

If you want to call the technique of starting bent and releasing it "bending up", then most chrom (as well as diatonic) players do this all the time, and there's no need to tune to 480 to do that, just start with a half step bend and release it.

Sure, if you play flat and tune sharp, you can have a vibrato that actually goes sharp, and my understanding is that Leo Diamond took this to the extreme, with quite musical results. But no need to tune that sharp if you just want to bend up to a note, or am I missing something?

As to the question of actually raising a reed's pitch on a valved chromatic, I would guess the answer is no.

Thanks,

- Slim.

www.SlideManSlim.com

On Dec 17, 2012, at 3:03 AM, David Payne wrote:

> Here is an example of Leo Diamond, back in the 1950s, doing exactly what you're talking about - bending notes UP on a chromatic. 
> 
>  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBgSDZLLoZM
> 
> Now Leo was a master player. He was also a master customizer. Recordings of Leo are very helpful in kind of getting some vague idea about the history of customizing. One of these interesting facts I learned from audio evidence of Leo is that embossing was done in the 1930s. 
>  The harp he plays here is probably one of the awesome custom chromatics ever made. There's lot of stuff he's done to it... one of these things makes  it possible to bend notes up. What he's done is alter the reference pitch. This harp is probably tuned at A=480 (that was not a typo). It's tuned so sharply that he has to bend every single note down to pitch. If every note must be bent down, then releasing that bend gives you the ability to bend up. 
> 
> 
> 
> David Payne
> www.elkriverharmonicas.com
> www.hetrickharmonica.com
> 
> 
> ________________________________
> From: Music Cal <macaroni9999@xxxxxxxxx>
> To: harp-L list <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx> 
> Sent: Monday, December 17, 2012 2:49 AM
> Subject: [Harp-L] raising a reed's pitch
> 
> I can bend notes down a half step or so for most reeds of my chromatic
> harmonica. But can one bend notes up, even a little bit? That is, is there
> something like overbends and overdraws for the chromatic harp?
> 
> MusiCal
>