[Harp-L] a question

["Jonathan R. Ross" <jross38@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I posited the question below offlist a while back, and have decided to
bring it to the list directly.

Perhaps the very goal being striven towards (playing in every key on a
single harp) is inherently wrong.  Perhaps the myopic drive towards this
goal has taken the focus off other, perhaps more feasible means of
achieving the end result of playing jazz (and other highly chromatic
musics) on the diatonic.  Perhaps it is why so few people play multiple
harps stacked in the West.  Perhaps it is why alternate tunings are
often looked down upon.  And perhaps the desired result can only be
achieved through a mixture of these things: advanced bending/overbending
technique; multiple harp technique; and alternate tunings. 

Now, to add to that, I will go farther and define a few things.  First,
I'll define why I mean by "playing in every key".  By this I mean being
able to play any piece in any key on any key diatonic.  This has been
the oft-stated goal, where you just pick up a harp and play, without
regard to position or other issues.  Want to play "Bluesette" in Gb but
you only have an A harp, no problem.  Now I need to define what I mean
by "play" in this sense.  Of course, with bending and overbending you
can get all the notes, but that's not what I mean.  I mean that you can
actually play the piece musically, without intonation issues, without
different timbres between altered and natural notes, essentially that
you can play any note and have it sound like any other note, or at close
enough.  Basically, that nothing sticks out as particularly different
from the rest, mostly in terms of intonation and timbre.  To give an
example, I can literally sing (within my half-octave range), but it
sounds like crap because my intonation sucks and my timbre is horrible,
changing drastically from note to note.  So, I prefer to say I can't
sing, or I don't sing (I could learn, but I'd still sound like crap
because I don't have a good singing voice--fortunately we can learn tone
on an instrument more easily than with our voice).  That's the same
thing I mean by "playing the harmonica" in this sense: that you can play
without these issues.  

So, can a single diatonic harmonica (particularly in German major
tuning, but this holds for most tunings as well) be played in all keys?
So far, I'd have to say that I haven't heard it done.  Even simple tunes
prove difficult to make acceptable depending on position and key of the
harmonica.  To go back, think of the "Ode to Joy" challenge.  The
challenge was to play this simple melody in second position, thus using
only one bent note, and to make it sound musically acceptable--to really
play it in the way I defined above.  The challenge was not met, indeed,
no-one came close.  I would argue that this challenge goes to the heart
of the matter.  If a simple piece like that can't be played with as
little demands as second position puts, how can people expect more
complex pieces in harder keys and positions to be playable?  Try this,
try playing it in every key and position--start in first (which is
easy), then go around the circle of fifths.  Sounds pretty awful.  But,
there seems to be an idea that we must hammer this square peg into the
round hole of musicality.  Which to me ignores the real lesson of this
example: the "Ode to Joy" sounds absolutely wonderful when played in
first position, or when played in second on an alternately tuned
harmonica (Paddy Richter would do it).  

So, why keep trying to force something which, twenty odd years after
Howard Levy started really to popularize overbending, hasn't yet worked
and shows no real signs of improvement.  I've been hearing so-called
"chromatic diatonic" playing at conventions and on-line for ten or more
years, and while I hear some excellent musicians and some really nice
music, I also hear a lot of stuff where the end result of making music
has been lost and subjugated to the need to make the harmonica do
something it doesn't want to do.  That is no dismissal of the techniques
involved (particularly bending and overbending), but rather that with
these techniques there are limitations--limitations inherent in the
instrument.  Which is nothing against the harmonica, as every instrument
has limitations.  Rather, there is an unwillingness to understand,
accept and use these limitations rather than try and force one's way
through them as if they are obstacles of the mind rather than obstacles
of the world.

Which leads me back to the basic question I raised at the beginning:
perhaps the goal of playing in all keys on a single diatonic harmonica
is a false goal.  That doesn't mean that playing complex music on the
diatonic is a false goal, rather, that the means which seems to be
ideologically dominant for the last ten years or so is the wrong one.
That the specific goal (playing in all keys on a single harp) has
overshadowed the real goal (playing complex music on the diatonic) and
that there is a need to recognize that the specific goal is not
achievable and refocus on how to achieve the real goal, which I believe
is achievable.  By incorporating the elements learned in the attempt of
the impossible, particularly overbending, with other ideas which have
been somewhat ignored, neglected or even dismissed we may yet achieve
that goal (I am thinking particularly about multiple-harp playing and
alternate tunings).  But, for that to happen there needs to be an
acknowledgement of the reality that indeed the false goal is not
achievable, and that all the attempts to do so have not been successful.

Often I hear the defense of this false goal as it being a "work in
progress".  This is a nice defense, but the problem I have with it is
that there really has been little or no progress to my ears.  At what
point does a "work in progress" become a dead-end?  How many years does
it take?  Ten?  Twenty?  We've gotten to the former if not the later, so
when does this get acknowledged?

I want it noted that this is not a slam against any particular player,
and in particular not against people who are noted for using overbends.
Indeed, some of my favorite players are amongst the people who brought
the overbend to prominence as a valid technique, which it most certainly
is (like bends, tongue-switching and many other techniques).  But the
question is no longer is the overbend a valid technique, but rather is
it possible to play (as defined above) in all twelve keys on a single
diatonic harmonica, as has been a stated goal for a while.  That is the
question which I ask, and the assumption which I believe is holding back
the real progress towards the goal of successfully playing complex music
on the diatonic harmonica.





 oo    JR "Bulldogge" Ross
()()   & Snuffy, too:)
`--'