Re: [Harp-L] re:was harp as a toy now set up



On Jun 20, 2005, at 12:43 PM, Eric Neumann wrote:

Pierre wrote:
"I kind of doubt the old Chicago players tweaked harps."

Maybe not - but I would not count them out yet. I think that it's
because of lists like this one, and communities revolving around playing
the harmonica well, that have probably made this seem more of a
contemporary practice.


I just can't believe that most of the old players would toss away a harp just because one reed wouldn't sound properly or because just one reed out of twenty had flatted out. Human nature and a thin wallet would dictate that you'd have a bash at fixing it before throwing it away. The myth that you can't fix harps was perpetuated in Tony Glover's "Blues Harp" book (apart from the "Encyclopedia" still the only harmonica book I ever bought!) in which he said something to the effect that he'd heard that some people file their reeds, but you'd have to be a Stradivarius to succeed in tuning harps ... (I've lost my copy so apologies for the probable misquote but that's the drift of it). Until I started to join harp lists and so on I "operated," harmonically-speaking, in total isolation from other harp players, but even a clod like me discovered how to change the gap of a reed if it choked - had to do something even if it was just trial and error - that mischievous reed just LOOKED different to the rest when I took off the covers to inspect it - and a friend of mine who played the piano accordion told me that his dad tuned his reeds by filing the end. Naturally I thought he meant shortening the reed but I quickly discovered that he didn't mean that at all! So I was doing my own gapping and fine-tuning, not very well (bad ear, no tuner), but I was DOING it, and, as I said, without reference to any other harp players. Of course I wasn't always doing it properly because I hadn't picked up the little snippets of wisdom that you find around here for example, but I WAS doing it and if it were provable one way or the other I'd bet a small wad that all the old boys were doing it, or knew someone who could.

Steve

http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/trad_irish_harmonica
HEAR my CD clips: http://www.gjk2.com/steveshaw/cd.htm
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