[Harp-L] On sticking chromatic slides - correction

[Snaruhn@xxxxxxx]

Hello Steve,

thanks for your response. I´m specially pleased that you
sent a second mail after having thought about the matter
again.  

Well, I also thought again about the slide sticking and got 
some other understandings.

Though it´s true that the saliva is a glue - in Germany we say
"es klebt wie Spucke" (glues like spittle) - it´s not the saliva 
which causes the slide sticking. Yeah, nobody intentionally
spits into his harp. This glueing stuff is almost completely on
the mpc only where it serves as gliding aid. 

No, responsible for the sticking is the condensed breath because
only the breath gets to the small and smallest corners of the
mpc parts. Also, we don´t make music with our babies by
spitting on but breathing against the reeds. 

The water content of the exhaled air is enormous and makes about 
20% of the body´s daily water loss and same as the saliva the 
breath water has the sam glueing ingredients. Spectacle wearer
do know this; they don´t spit on but breath against the glasses.

Consequently, at all spots where "saliva" appears in connection 
with slide sticking it has to be read "condensed breath" and that 
concerns not only my post.       

A further little "streamlining" regarding the stamping burrs. 
I wrote:

<< The reason why the burrs have to be removed is to avoid 
<< scratches on the slide because they act as condensation
<< points for the saliva glue. >>

That´s correct but more important is that the burrs act as 
condensation points themselves.

Now, Steve, you didn´t agree to my "questionable harp warming".

Yippie, that doesn´t come unexpected. However, I stick to what
I said regarding the warming effect to the playing quality.

Decades ago Hohner offered a little instruction pamphlet 
"How to play a chromonica" where it was adviced to warm
the instrument before playing. I observed that all the time until 
I participated a chromatic course in Trossingen. The teacher 
was Helmut Herold, a seasoned Hohner expert and acknowledged 
chromatic player. At first, he played some excercises, then put
the harp on the table and started a long palaver about this and that.
After some time, the harp got as cold as the unheated room,
he continued playing. That was the moment I´d waited for. 
But when I reminded him of the Hohner instruction he calmed
down and explained that the warming of harps isn´t of such
importance as generally considered. Hmmmh ??  

In the meantime I gathered a lot of technical experience on the
construction of a chromatic and observed what exactly happens 
when tuning a chrom. At first I found out that the tuning of a reed
has to be done in playing position. That means the reedplate of
a dissambled harp has at least to be fixed provisionally again on
the comb in order to check the just tuned reed.

One day I supposed that the condensed water, specially, on the
reed tip may influence the pitch of a reed and thought about the
problem how to manage crosschecks between dry/wet and
warm/cold reeds. I took a bellows, respectively, warmed up the
the respective reedplate section with a hair drier, somewhat above
body temperature to balance the cooling down when replacing the 
reedplate.
 
Result:         No pitch changing of dry,wet,cold or warm reeds 
Conclusion:  Warming up is meaningless

Now, you wrote:

< The explanation apropos condensation, etc., may well be questionable,
< but when I pick up one of my chromatics in the pub session I know that
<  it just won't be perfect unless it's warm.  Into the pants pocket it goes, 

< if I've had the foresight to predict that I'll soon need it. >

Yeah, but you forgot one thing. The crucial harp parts to be warmed up
are the reedplates, but they are placed in the harp centre. The mpc and
the covers act insolating against the pocket warmth, i.e. the reedplates
can´t get warm enough to prevent condensation.

I checked that too when I applied my hair drier. I warmed the reedplates
up to pocket temperature, made the tuning check and had the Niagara  
Falls.

So, if one insists that warming up his harps let them play better,
I would answer: yes, do that, it´s not a disadvantage too. 

< It's a fallacy to think that you're sucking in tons of cold air from the 
< environment every time you play a draw note. And, of course, your 
< hands on the harp's covers are having a considerable warming effect. >

It´s surely a fallacy but I didn´t speak of tons and concerning the
warming effect of the hands on the covers, just see how Toots use
to hold his MT. He need all his hands to hold his huge mics and 
to serve the button. 

As I said, warming isn´t harming.

Stay well

Siegfried