[Harp-L] old, because I needed to figure it out

[Jonathan Ross <jross38@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Jason Rosenblatt wrote:

"I do however still feel with advancements in diatonic harmonica  
construction and practice there will be someone (other than Howard)  
who will successfully pull off a meaningful performance of Body and  
Soul that jazz fans can appreciate."

First, I know a lot of people who could.  Probably even Howard.  Most  
likely it's only  if they used a radical, little known and esoteric  
technique only a very few have ever discovered.  Switch harps.  It's  
not hard, it's quite simple, and you can do it without even  
thinking.  Instead of forcing both keys to lay badly on a single  
harp, you can have each lay smoothly and evenly on a different harp.   
Hell, develop this technique enough and you can actually get to the  
level where you can play lines which criss-cross between the two  
harps without anyone noticing that you're doing it (ie, play a  
chromatic scale using only natural notes on two harps, say C and C#  
and have it sound smooth and even).

And no, I haven't developed it to that level.  I plan on getting  
better at harp-switching, but I doubt I'll ever get to that level,  
but I'm told it does exist and is the most common way of playing harp  
in East Asia.  Take two, three or even more harps and switch across  
them as the line demands, not just when the song changes keys.  But  
for simple key-signature or even modal changes, a basic one-out-one- 
in switch is very simple.

As for the technical construction part, I had to think long and hard  
to figure out what you meant, then I finally got it.  You mean a  
technical advancement which would allow you to play all the notes of  
the chromatic scale with the same intonation, phrasing and timbre.   
You know, a chromatic harmonica.

Wait-a-minute.  I seem to recall such a thing may have actually been  
invented by someone, sometime...Maybe I'm just imagining it.



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