Fwd: Re: [Harp-L] intonation and such

["Winslow Yerxa" <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>]

--- In harp-l-archives@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, Richard Hunter
<turtlehill@...> wrote:

So let me see if I've got this right. If I don't spend lots of
precious practice time trying to make overblows sound like real music,
which is no easy trick even for the guys who seem to think it's their
life's work, then I've got "half-assed technique," and for sure it's
leading me to make "half-assed artistic decisions."  

=====Winslow:

Not. I did not say that and did not mean that. For those who choose to
use a technique, these things apply. You are someone who, as far as I
know, has eschewed the use of overbends. That's your perfectly valid
choice. However, your use of regular bends and of wide split intervals
- things you are known to use - had better be as good as you can make
them, with no whining about how "weak" the sounds are when you use them.

====Richard:

Even though we can apparently all now admit that there's nothing and
no one who can keep those altered notes from sticking out like a
purple cow in a herd of Guernseys, I have to practice overblowing EVEN
HARDER than before, because I have to make those altered notes really
"strong."  Or I'm half-assed.

====Winslow:

I don't agree about the "sticking out" comment. We do not all agree.
To the extent that overbends can be made to blend with other notes -
and to a certain extent they can - this possibility should be
utilized. To the extent to which they cannot be blended, they should
be used in a way that makes artistic sense - or avoided where they
don't. There's no use pretending that they blend smoothly where they
don't.

Regular bends stick out to some extent, yet you find a way to use them
artistically, do you not? You don't push them away and refuse to use
them, do you? Same for overbends - for those who choose to use them.

===Richard:

Well, some things are not worth doing extremely well, even if they're 
worth doing a little, and especially if "extremely well" doesn't
really sound extremely good.

===Winslow:

I learned a surprising and inspiring lesson from watching and hearing
Stan Harper playing chromatic at SPAH a few years ago. There are many
techniques on chromatic that I had given up pursuing because the
effort to actually get them to work as intended seemed too hard and
not worth the effort, even if they had the theorerical potential to
greatly expand the possibilities of the instrument.

That night, I heard Stan using many of those techniques flawlessly,
musically, and, apparently, effortlessly. Just because it seemed too
hard going in didn't mean that it was too hard to achieve and use
productively.

For me, that lesson applies to any technique or set of techniques. I
may or may not choose to pursue that particular thing, I refuse to
tell anyone it's impossible or even inadvisable based on my own
perceptions. 

And I don't tolerate people giving other people advice about the
general state of possibilities based on their own lack of commitment.

Honest statement: "It didn't work out for me, and I didn't feel it was
worth the effort for me to pursue. It might be different for you"

Dishonest statement: "It's impossible."

===Richard.

All of this obsession with controlling the pitch and sound of altered 
notes is in my opinion a big, fat, waste of time, and I for one have 
other fish to fry.

====WInslow

Your perfectly valid choice - for you as one person. My only
requirement of you or anyone else is to make your own choices for
yourself as an individual, and never to say never for anyone else.

Winslow