[Harp-L] melody maker

[Jonathan Ross <jross38@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dave wrote:
"I'm not trying to be a jerk but Lee Oskar is after all one of us.  
Since "Melody Maker" is a trademarked name it's a shame for people to  
violate it"

Unless you have heard this from Lee himself, I'd guess otherwise.   
The trademark is there so that it is harder for anyone else to sell  
the tuning rather than Lee Oskar.  They'd have to come up with a new  
name and then market it with all the ensuing confusion.  But, the  
more people use the tuning (either by LO or others) and the more  
times people mention "Melody Maker" the more likely it is for people  
to become interested, and find the easiest available product--LO's  
product.

Indeed, even if Lee does dislike the generic usage of the name, I  
think he would be mistaken.  Just as Jeep fought to keep all "SUVs"  
from being called simply "jeeps", LO could do the same.  But, now  
Jeep is just one of many manufacturers, whereas before it was the  
name of the entire market--I know which I would prefer.  Letting, or  
even encouraging people to move a brand name from a specific to a  
generic actually seems to me to be quite a good idea.  There was (and  
perhaps still is) a time where companies and consultants saw this as  
a major negative, and thus big campaigns were undertaken by both Jeep  
and Band-Aid, to name two, to fight the common, all-encompassing  
usage.  It succeeded, but both these companies no longer dominate the  
market--that seems not to be a coincidence.

Now, alternate harmonica tunings are about as profitable as selling  
canned air, so it really doesn't matter that much.  AFAIC, Lee  
doesn't make harmonicas in alternate tunings because of any market  
demand, but rather as a labor of love.  In that case, I doubt he'd  
mind people using the name he came up with to describe the tuning he  
developed and which he is the only one to regularly manufacture.

As for Melody Maker being harder to get a handle on--I agree  
entirely.  Many tunings are very intuitive, but MM is not like that  
for me.  It's odd, because it is essentially just a combination of  
two tunings I find quite easy to use (Country and Paddy), but still,  
the combination throws me off.  I doubt that would be the case had I  
first learned on an MM, but then, the same could be said of spiral  
tunings (strange, and hard to figure, but if you'd learned that  
first, I'm sure it would seem natural and the more linear tunings  
odd).  However, fjm had a great point--this tuning really seems to  
work best when you have a distinct song and melody to play.  The more  
you do that, the more it really does start to make sense.

Mind you, I'd still tend to plat either Paddy or Country tuning first  
and only go to MM after those aren't satisfying for what I want.   
But, again, if I had started on MM, I'm sure that would be different.




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