[Harp-L] Intonation and bending/overblow notes , iceman's summertime

[George Brooks <gbrooks1@xxxxxxxxx>]

Cletus likens himself to the boy who cries out that the Emperor has no 
clothes.  But he's just belatedly jumping on a bandwagon unless it was 
him who made a post several months back leveling a similar criticism at 
Sandy Weltman's performance at a recent SPAH or Buckeye.

The intonation challenges on a chromatic are much smaller than they are 
on a diatonic.  But diatonic harmonica has an expressiveness and a 
vocal quality that, in my opinion, the chromatic harmonica lacks.  Part 
of the attraction of diatonic harmonica stems from the plasticity of 
the pitches, the very thing that makes rigorously in-tune playing 
difficult.

The diatonic harmonica is more like a trumpet or sax than a piano where 
intonation is concerned.  Correct intonation on any of these 
instruments is never a given.  And I agree with Rosco that there is 
plenty of jazz that is widely acknowledged as great where the 
intonation of the trumpet or sax is not accurate.  Some listeners focus 
on the intonation or other technical aspects of the playing, while 
others focus on the emotional content, the dynamics, and other aspects 
of the performance.  But I would concede that if the intonation is too 
off on too many of the notes, the listening experience is ruined for me 
regardless of how great the performance is in other respects.  It's a 
matter of your threshold, and yours will differ from mine as mine 
differs from Rosco's (he's more forgiving of intonation errors than I 
am).

A diatonic is never going to sound like a chromatic, and I believe that 
is a good thing.  For certain listeners among us, though, the sound of 
a diatonic on certain kinds of non-blues music such a jazz or swing, 
even if very well played, will *never* be satisfying.  It's not just a 
matter of intonation.  As Richard Hunter has pointed out many times, 
there are differences in timbre among the open notes and those produced 
by the various bending techniques.

My opinion is that these timbral differences can be attenuated, but not 
eliminated, through diligent practice.  The differences are inherent; 
they stem from the structure of the instrument.  But my further opinion 
is that the intonation challenges, while difficult, are not 
insurmountable.  Howard Levy may be a poor example because he is always 
straining against the outer limits of his technique.  A better example 
might be P.T. Gazell, whose intonation is very, very good despite 
playing an instrument, the partially valved diatonic, that requires an 
exceptionally refined technique to play in tune.

I'm not disagreeing with Cletus, despite what I have written above.  
Larry's "vision of moving all notes created on the regular diatonic 
harmonica into equality" is, I believe, a worthy goal and a noble 
pursuit.  I would agree, as I hope Larry would, that he still has 
substantial work to do in this regard, as do I.

George