re:XB40 and intonation

[rainbowjimmy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

If you like playing blues and diatonic harp, try branching out to a few 
different instrumements. I've had fun playing chromatic and playing minor tuned 
harps. It's not exactly like playing a standard harp in 2nd position but a lot 
of the same skills apply and you get some new cool sounds. I'm going to buy a 
few more minor key harps and a couple of tremelo harps, but I could see how the 
XB40 could be a fun toy.

The XB40 will allow you to play more styles of music. Intonation is more 
important if you need the actual note as part of the melody rather than an 
embellishment. In blues part of the sound is the notes clashing, the bass is 
playing the 3rd straight while the lead instruments are flatting the note 
around a 1/4 step, while the piano is flatting it a full half step. So playing 
blues diatonic if you need to flat the tonic C down to a B for some tension and 
resolution your intonation can be a little off. When you're playing a melody in 
C and need to play a B as part of the melody, hit the bend wrong and you sound 
awful.No big deal. Just work on ear training. That's a good thing to practice 
anyway.

Rainbow Jimmy
http://www.spaceanimals.com
http://www.soundclick.com/theelectricstarlightspaceanimals.htm