RE: Mastery(longish-but worth it)

["Michael Peloquin" <peloquinharp@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

SOMEONE POSTED THIS:
>There are NO missing notes on
>the diatonic (even basic Richter) there are
>just people who don't know where to find them.
Well put-This be my mantra.

Robb Bingham replied:
>the shortharp has a lot of
>counter-intutitve things going on.
Very true and agreed

>This is something
>that a harplayer has to deal with- unlike any other
>instrument: the facts that the 3 octaves on the harp
>are all different, and that the way you produce those
>notes changes on the third octave so that every thing
>you ~drew~ on the first two octaves, you now blow, and
>every thing you blew, you now draw.
This is a bit misleading. Blow and draw do not change but the relationship 
between them does.
i.e. bottom 2/3 of the short harp has blow to draw notes in the same hole 
increasing in pitch
top 1/3 of the short harp has draw to blow notes in the same hole increasing 
in pitch

>Combined with the fact that all three octaves are laid out differently,
>and that notes are missing from the diatonic scale in
>the 1st and 3rd octaves, it makes for a relatively
>complicated approach to the instrument.

As complicated as you would like to make it.
I see the note layout as a picture in scale tones relative to position I'm 
playing in. I see the different registers(slightly more and/or les than an 
octave) in realation to the entire instrument, rather than "oh no, now it's 
different!" I see scales & patterns as "visual & pitch oriented shapes."
a descending (pentatonic) run:
9b, 8b, 8d, 7d, 6d, 6b
in my mind is the exact same shape as the same run an octave down:
6b, 5b, 4d, 3d, 3d'', 2d(3b)
there are minor adjustments that I do and understand intuitively now that I 
have played for a few months. the mental picture/shape is still the same. 
They cross pollinate to saxophone for me also.

Anyone that would like to explore these concepts should hit me up at SPAH. I 
will be part of Dr. Filisko's Teach Ins. ( A Blow-Out and a Teach-In in the 
same week!?)

>Or, of course, you can have a totally ~Eff  IT~
>approach and refuse to approach the instrument in this
>way at all.
This is such a popular method for the modern harmonicyst.

Thanks for y'alls time,
Michael Peloquin
http://www.globerecords.com/cgi-bin/db/search.cgi?specific=itemno&phrase=GLO-025