Preferred ranges WAS Re: Bushman & Martin [was Re: high" A" harp question]

["G." <gigs@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

- ----- Original Message -----
From: Bobbie Giordano <bobg@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, January 07, 2003 11:04 PM

>But I still prefer the lower range myself.
> =[BOBBIE]=

My personal preference on diatonics is definitely for lower ranges, I don't like
playing on anything higher than C if I can help it.

For the past 6 months I've been doing a lot of vamping when I'm not soloing,
basically I become the "rhythm guitarist", but the higher regular tuned
diatonics can place that vamping right in the middle of the singing and soloing
range!  So I much prefer the Low tuned diatonics to avoid that.

However when it comes to soloing I want to have the bottom octave draw bends
without playing so low down, my answer is to retune the middle octave of low
tuned diatonics to repeat the bottom octave much in the same way as the SBS, the
difference being I retune hole 7 up to the 4th of the harmonica so theres a
double up draw note.   It serves me well.

For chromatics I'm playing C tenor less and found that the G to G range is much
more to my taste, with 12 hole chromatics its a good compromise.  C solo is
still a great range, but I hardly ever hit the top end, or want to.

I find squeaky high harp playing bugs my ears & drives me nuts.
Sorry Jimmy Reed.

Cheers
G.