Re: [Harp-L] High-tech tool helps harmonica players hit right notes

["Planet Harmonica" <lists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Har har !

Excellent parody, Randy !

Although a line on how it's "the software many consider to be the best" would have sparked good debate ;-)

Ben FELTEN
http://harmonica.typepad.com
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: randy singer 
  To: undisclosed-recipients: 
  Sent: Monday, September 18, 2006 4:40 PM
  Subject: [Harp-L] High-tech tool helps harmonica players hit right notes


  High-tech tool helps harmonica players hit right notes
  By Brad Kava
  Mercury News
  The harmonica is the world's most commonly sold instrument, but it is  
  as rare to find someone who plays it well as it is to find someone  
  who has never tried one.

  The reason it is so tough to master is that players can't see what  
  they are doing. Unlike a guitar, saxophone, clarinet or trumpet, the  
  forming -- or bending -- of the notes comes from deep in the throat.

  Along comes Joel Trunick's ``Bendometer,'' a computer program that  
  shows players what notes they are hitting. Trunick has put it on the  
  Web at www.harpsoft .com as ``donationware,'' allowing players to pay  
  the yearly fee they think the program is worth.

  Blow or suck the harmonica in front of your computer's microphone,  
  and it shows what note you are hitting, right or wrong.

  It will also help transcribe the notes played on your favorite discs.

  The program was a hobby for Trunick, 37, who writes insurance  
  programs for IBM in Austin. He was given a harmonica as a present  
  when he was 21, and later made a video game using notes from it to  
  trigger a gun, similar to the video game ``Asteroids.'' The goal was  
  to make you hit the right notes, so you could destroy the enemies,  
  while creating a song.

  He posted it on the Web and was disappointed that it got only one or  
  two hits a month.

  But then -- eureka! -- he saw it in a different way. What about using  
  the program as a tool to help harmonica players learn to find the  
  notes they can't see?

  He put that on the Web and 2,500 people are now using it, most  
  donating $10 to $50 a year.

  ``I wanted it to be affordable for people in Third World countries or  
  young students,'' said the father of three. ``And I didn't want to  
  make it shareware because I wanted to know if it had a value to  
  people.''

  Jason Ricci, who uses the program to check his playing, says, ``It's  
  the best way to learn to bend notes and hit them accurately.''

  Trunick tells subscribers that he'll use the money to take his son  
  Joshua, 7, skiing -- but he hasn't had a chance to do that yet.

  So far, he's bought his wife, Suzanne, some dinners to make up for  
  the months of spare time he invested writing the program.
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