Re: Newbie questions

[Peter Harlan <pharlan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 11:51 PM 7/13/2004 +0100, Jamie Dolan wrote:
> >snips from post by Peter Harlan<
> > I have a pretty good musical
> > background, but except for playing a little blues on
> > a diatonic harp years ago, I don't have any experience
> > with the harmonica.
>
>What sort of musical background? Remember, more than blues can be played on
>a harmonica :)) [snip]

Well, on piano I play classical decently and a bit of blues,
jazz, and whatever. On bass, I play mostly jazz, blues and
rock. On guitar, it's mostly a sort of finger-style folk.
On tenor sax and flute, I make noise.

I guess I don't really have any particular genre in mind for
the harmonica. Or even a favorite player's style to try to
emulate. I'm getting into harp now because I'm going to be
travelling for quite a while and it seems to me that the
harmonica would be an ideal instrument to take along. I wonder
if many other players originally picked it up for portability
reasons?

[snip]

>But... I find that Solo, for the music I want to play (mainly classical and
>some jazz) works pretty well. For classical, tunings that sacrafice on
>aspects such smooth transitions between notes in the scale, in order to gain
>more chords etc may not be worth the hassle. But then there's the tunings
>that are meant to offer supreme transitions in the scale, and such aspects
>as only needing to know about four patterns to play in all keys.

Yeah, I looked at some of the more radical layouts. They're
interesting, but I can't imagine not being able to play _any_
major or minor triads.

>Solo tuning... the most obvious advantage is that it is the standard tuning
>produced in all chromatic harmonicas. No tuning or hassle required, spare
>plates available ready to play etc. But, just because it's economical to
>play Solo, doesn't mean it's the tuning that produces the desired musical
>outcome. One of the main reasons that I play Solo is that I am interested in
>playing pieces composed specifically for the chromatic. Quite a fair few of
>these contain chords/intervals which could only be played on a Solo tuned
>instrument. I only really use one harmonica, but in the future, if I find
>the time, I will look into having a selection of differently tuned
>intruments to see if it's musically sound to use them in different aspects
>of the music I play. I.e. if they make the damn trills in the Scottish
>Country Dance music any easier to handle! :))

Good point. I hadn't really thought about transcriptions. Obviously, any
truly chromatic layout is going to enable you to play the same monophonic
stuff. But the "fingerings" [what is the harp-specific word I'm looking for?]
and phrasings would have to vary along with the layout.

> > No matter what, there are always going to be at least
> > two ways to play some notes. On many instruments, there
> > are fairly standard scale fingerings which are learned
> > by beginners. As the player advances, he or she finds
> > out that alternate fingerings can offer tachnical and
> > interpretive advantages in specific kinds of passages.
> > I'm assuming it's a similar evolution for the harmonica
> > player. Is there a method or reference book anybody
> > would like to recommend that covers these issues well?
>
>Well... considering the fact that there's only the two notes in Solo tuning
>that can be played twice (within an octave, three if you count the next C) I
>doubt there's a whole book on the subject (but maybe in the future, we're
>just waiting for someone to write it). Some always say 'play C in hole 5,
>never in hole 4' etc but many players (including myself) use whatever notes
>we find MOST MUSICAL. In many cases it may be what is easiest to play (i.e.
>moving quickly between C and the Bb below. Instead of Blow 5 then Draw 3
>with the slide in, or even Blow 4 then Draw 3 with the slide in, how about
>Draw 4 With the slide in moving to Draw 3 with the slide in. Only a change
>of hole instead of change in hole, breath and slide posistion) but not
>always. There's not set way to play the thing :)) Tommy Reilly always
>advocates moving up a chromatic scale using E# but down using F. I played it
>that way before I have ever heard of Tommy Reilly... You're right, we all
>evolve our own way of playing things.

My interest is in choosing one variation to practice first, so that
I have one way I know to get through all the common scales.

> > Finally, here's a zany question: Is it possible to blow
> > and draw simultaneously on opposite sides of tongue? If
> > it's even possible, I'm sure it's difficult, but I'm
> > just asking out of curiosity. I remember how amazed I
> > was when I first saw a horn player circular breathe,
> > and it seems that great players are always redefining
> > what is possible on their instruments.
>
>:)) Would sure be great if it could be done! But no,  I certainly have never
>heard of any body who could do this, and would have to say I think it
>impossible. Circular breathing involves breathing through the nose whilst
>using the tongue as a piston to get the air into the holes, but I think it
>VERY improbable that somebody could use only one side of their tongue to
>block of that side of their mouth and shovel air towards the reeds, whilst
>drawing on the other side. Don't be afraid to ask these things though!
>
>All the best
>
>Jamie
>
>P.S. It's not quite the same but you can get the blow and draw reeds to
>operate at the same time on a diatonic harmonica but blowing hard and
>keeping your cup real airtight.

Hmm... I'll try this. Thanks for the advice!

- -Peter