[Harp-L] Re: Winslow's bending and stiff reeds experiment

[Greg Heumann <greg@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Winslow - you just blew everything I thought I understood about  
bending into the weeds. I was taught that bending was a sympathetic  
interaction between the two reeds in a diatonic harp - a draw bend  
begins with the draw reed at its regular pitch, begins to involve the  
other (lower pitch reed) and then one or both begin to vibrate  
sympathetically, resulting in a range ofpitches that falls between  
the tywo reeds' natural frequency. This explains why a) the number of  
semitones difference between the reeds is responsible for the amount  
we (mortals, anyway) can bend (for example, C harp 3 hole draw = B, 3  
blow  = G - 5 semi-tones range. The bends include the 3 in the  
middle: Bb, A, Ab. On the other hand, 5 draw =F, 5 blow = E  
(difference of one semi-tone) - so can only bend 1/4 tone. It also  
explains why most of us can't bend very well on a chromatic - the  
"other" reed doesn't get involved. So this theory has always made  
sense to me - and still does.

But - upon reading your post, I immediately disassembled an A  harp  
and tried both blow- and draw-bending the single reed, and discovered  
that I indeed could. SO  now I'm wondering if there are 2 physically  
distinct phenomena here? I.e., the first is "2-reed-involved-bends"  
and the second is "lone reed bends"?

Can you shed any light?