Re: Rethinking Richter on the XB-40

["Robert Paparozzi" <chromboy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

- ----- Original Message -----
From: "Fred S" <fsstov@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "harp-l" <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: Rethinking Richter on the XB-40


.  My first
> thought was that it would be a distraction from trying to improve my
> normal Richter harp playing, e.g. more accurate draw bends, cleaner blow
> bends, etc. etc.  I still need to do that for sure, but the XB may just
> be too much (fun) to pass up.

    We should take a minute to address this, you still have to LEARN the art
of bending, the XB doesn't make that any easier (although it will later
provide you with more rewards for your efforts). In fact, with all the extra
notes you'll be bending more on your XB than your regular diatonic.

    To the contrary I think, working on your bends on the XB will really
help you as you go back and forth from regular diatonic to XB. But, as
you'll see the embrouchure will be slighty different on each axe and with
each hole has some 'extra' bends you really will be using your ears to more
to control things.

> Anyway, a question about Misty.  I always thought that it was pretty
> playable on a regular diatonic in 2nd position without overblows.
> Perhaps there are a few spots in the bridge that need it, but I guess
> I've just been faking those.

It IS very playable on the reg. diatonic in 2nd pos. w/o OB's , some players
jumped up to the highest octave blowbends to complete the bridge melody, or
tryed to fudge it on the low end.....now you have the bridge right there you
just need to work on holding the bent notes which not all that hard.
>
> I'm still a little concerned that if one doesn't have a pretty good
> mastery of all the bends on a regular diatonic then playing an XB-40
> would be a frustrating experience, but I guess I'll never know until I
> try it.  Thanks for your insights. (Cool BB pix, by the way).

    You probably right Fred, you should have strong bending skills to get
the most out of the XB-40, but CAN work on them on both axes, I think it's
better tho to learn the basics on a regular diatonic first to build up the
general technique....


> Fred S
>
>
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