Re: Fwd: Re: Re: Harmonica range - and tremolo harp bending

["Stephen Shaw" <moorcot@xxxxxxx>]

quote Winslow.....


>The problem with some harps, like the Hohner Echo, is that there is
>little hole punched in the wall between the top and bottom rows. This
>is not to prevent bending. it's just to make sure that sloppy players
>don't miss playing both rows if they don;t aim right. You can always
>plug up the holes.

...but only the central holes are joined this way, not the the highest and 
lowest notes...which are unquestionably the hardest to play sweet on the 
Echo harps.  I've never worked out the reason for the perforations, but 
I'm...er...not entirely convinced by the sloppy players hypothesis.


>I've been playing a lot of tremolo harp lately with the San Francisco
>Scottish Fiddlers. Sometimes there is a key change (like from A to D)
>or a mode change (like from D Major to D Mixolydian). Rather than
>switch harps, I might use a few bends here and there.

>In the sequence of tunes where the key changes from A to D, the scale
>changes so that it contains a G-natural instead of the
>G# that the A-harp has built in. Depending on where I am on the harp
>this will take whatever bending form works best - it might be a dual-
>reed draw bend, and overblow, or an isolated-reed draw bend. Or I
>might get lucky and find that one of the tunes never uses the note
>that differs between the two scales.
>
>Some tunes stay in the same key but shift mode. For instance, Pipe on
>the Hob is a tune that moves back and forth between D Major (with a
>C#) and D mixolydian (with a C natural). Switching harps for one or
>two notes in a phrase is too awkward, and maybe I want the tremolo
>sound that I won't get from a chromatic. So I choose either a D-harp
>and bend when I need the C natural, or choose a G-harp (second
>position) and bend when I need the C#. (in the case of Pipe on the
>Hob I chose a G-harp).

I play mostly traditional Irish and Scottish tunes, and I use Echo harps 
just as I would use my 10-hole diatonics.  I will choose the position in 
which to play a tune according to the notes in that tune, e.g. a tune in D 
major (D is the tonic) but which happens to lack C# is a good candidate for 
2nd position on a G harp. I am quite happy in 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 12th 
positions, according to the tune, as well as first, which I need most. Tunes 
are typically played in medleys, so if you're canny you can select tunes 
that are in different keys but can easily be played in different positions 
on the same harp.  I use Echos about 20% of the time, mainly to get some 
variety in my sound over an evening.  I can play 'em just as fast as blues 
harps for jigs and reels.  They can be pretty good for giving a bit of soft 
accompaniment in traditional songs too.  I know you can get bends on 'em but 
to be honest I'd as soon go back to my 10-holes if I wanted to do much of 
this in a tune.  As for the awkwardness of switching harps, you can get 
double-sided Echos.  A D/G or a D/A  model is hunky-dory for Celtic tunes - 
and you can get pretty good at flipping the thing over mid-tune!  Not so 
easy when you're holding a bullet though!  They are not my "main" harps but 
I love 'em.  Now, TUNING Echos is another issue altogether....!

Steve Shaw

Want more than the blues?  Try Irish!
http://mysite.freeserve.com/trad_irish_harmonica

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