Re: Re: [Harp-L] Paddy Richter for Blues?

[Ken Ficara <kenficara@xxxxxxxxx>]

I play a lot of fiddle-tunes tongue-blocked, to add some rhythm to the
melody by doing quick lifts on the upbeat. However, if you play
melodies in the top octave of the harp, you can't tongue-block for
rhythm on the draw notes, because you'll end up playing the
6-draw/7-draw combo, the 6th and 7th notes of the scale in first
position, which sounds terrible. This is the only spot on the harp
where you don't get a chord by playing adjacent holes together.
Therefore I'm sometimes torn between playing very fast and clean
melody notes in the top half of the harp (where you have that nice
6-draw) or playing melodies and rhythm on the bottom half but having
to bend 3-blow to get the missing note down there.

I am NO expert on harmonica tunings, but it seems to me impossible to
tune 6-draw or 7-draw so that you'd get a chord when playing them
(along with the other adjacent draw notes) but still be able to play a
melody that descended below 7-blow.

I really want to have my harmonica cake and eat it too, but I'm sure
the reason the damn thing is laid out that way is that there's no
alternative that makes sense. It's like the B string on the guitar.

Ken

On Wed, 12 Jan 2005 19:36:41 -0000, Winslow Yerxa
<winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> 
> --- In harp-l-archives@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, Ken Ficara <kenficara@xxxx>
> wrote:
> <snip>
> 
> In fact I've often wished I had a tuning that would let me do
> tongue-blocking over the nasty 6-7 draw area, but I don't think that's
> possible without seriously impairing the ability to play melodies.
> 
> ========Winslow writes:
> 
> Wondering what you mean by the above - please amplify.
> 
> W.
> 
> 
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-- 

Ken Ficara
Music, quotes, writing and more at 
http://www.kenficara.com