Re: [Harp-L] Country tuning specs and recommendations?

[moandabluz@xxxxxxx]

 A year or two ago, I took some harps I wasn't playing much and retuned 
them to country tuning. I haven't done much work yet to get comfortable 
with it, but even with a mismatched set of seven harps, it allows me 
quite a bit of leeway on tunes like "Waltz Across Texas" and "Cheatin' 
Heart." Though I have mostly played Cheatin' Heart on the standard 
tuning, when i want the full melody, the country tuned harp comes out.  
These are just two examples and I know there are some listers who use 
them fluently.  That pesky five draw on second position major scale 
songs is eliminated this way. Well, I mean now you can play the five 
draw. I have experimented a little with overblowing to get that note, 
but I'm just not fluent enough with OBs to make it sound right.
   An aside... I played at a jam session a couple weeks ago.. a 
memorial for a musician friend who passed away. Got some compliments 
from some longtime musician friends about how my harp playing was 
really coming along and how impressed they were.   But I recorded much 
of it and I don't know what they were listening to.. Man, will that 
ever make you honest, to hear it again the next day, sober and 
judgemental.
Oh, and there was a resident Gus who showed up, with his one harp.  He 
did know enough to only play his G harp when the band was doing a song 
in D, but he was what gives harp players a bad rep. Just some droning 
kind of draw notes on the bottom of the harp with an occasional single 
note once in awhile... It kind of worked, but after the first time, it 
all was the same.  He did draw a look of disgust once in awhile from 
some of the professional musicians who were more or less running the 
jam..
 That's it from me.
Happy Holidays to all...

----
Steve "Moandabluz" Webb
Always a fool for the harp
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