Re: how to learn to play harp

[Mike Curtis <wd6ehr@xxxxxxxxxx>]

> 
> At 2:01 PM 1/30/95, J Patrick Hester -- NY wrote:
> >I don't know about the BEST method but here's the one that worked for me...
> >Get a job about 60 miles from where you live. One where you have to drive
> >like an hour if there's no traffic.
> 
> I'll second that advice.

I agree, and doubt you'll find anyone who will disagree.  Unless you're in
really challenging traffic, it's a great time to practice.  I also think it
keeps me more alert while driving, too.

Although I'm self-unemployed :-) and work out of the house, I do a lot of
driving, often well in excess of a couple hours daily.  I keep a C valved
diatonic harp (usually an Oskar - I valve them myself - but it would sure be
nice if Lee sold them valved - I'd gladly pay extra for this convenience!) in
my shirt pocket.  Driving is a great time to practice.  I play along to the
radio, and hope the engineers haven't used the tape speed control to notch the
pitch up some wierd fraction of a semitone (which isn't often, but it does
happen.) Sometimes when this happens, I'll try playing along anyway, using a
slight bend on all notes to correct pitch.  Good preparation for performing
with certain guitarists.  (Even in the age of quartz tuners, some guitarists
always tune using only their first (high E) string as reference, and with
their floating Floyd Rose whammy bars and wimpy .008 gauge strings, by the
time they get tuned, that string has changed pitch a couple of tones.) Playing
along with these "out of perfect tuning" songs is great practice for playing
along with guitarists who seem to believe their E string is made of quartz :-)

Quartz is used to make resonant crystals that are extremely stable.  Musical
instrument tuners using quartz crystals as frequency standards are extremely
accurate. 

I also play guitar, and when working in a band setting, often work with other
guitarists.  In my experience, the primary reason many guitarists tune to
themselves is they don't have intonation set properly on their guitars.  (Of
course, some are accustomed to that method and just do it because they are
used to it, but they're a minority.) Each string has an adjustment so that a
chime above the 12th fret will match the pitch of that string fretted on the
12th fret.  As strings age, their intonation changes, so cheapskate guitarists
who play with old strings have intonation problems.  Fortunately, the super
thin strings coupled with the sharp bridges popular today tend to break
strings, which forces many to change strings more often.  But this can also be
a curse, e.g. when they replace rather than change =8^O 


 --  mike curtis
wd6ehr@xxxxxxxxxx