Re: [Harp-L] Re: Chromatic player


On Jul 8, 2007, at 5:50 PM, SONNYTONE@xxxxxxx wrote:

The felllow I met last night who could play the snot out of the chromatic is
Charles Spranklin, does anyone know him, heard him.

Yes Gary, Charles is an old friend.

He gets together with all the diatonic/chromatic heavies from NYC once a week. Gallison, you name
them, he's there with them.

The usual suspects are (but not limited TO): Charlie Leighton (it's his apt.), Will Galison, Randy Weinstein, Charles Spranklin, and (lately) Phil Caltebellotta. Somtimes Susan Rosenberg &/or whomsoever is in town at the time.

He is well into his 70's, as I do not overblow, it
was a very  humbling experience to trade off with him.

Charles was already big time back in the 40s and has been with several groups/trios, but namely the Don Henry Trio. Charles was in the music/commercial/jingles production field in N.Y.

It has made me seriously considering having my harps built with the 5 draw up a half step, like Lee
does on his harps, but he always takes the 3 blow up so it does not allow the
blues 3/6 chord.

I have taken some of MY harps up a half tone on the 5 and 9 draws (since 9/25/59), but I DON't mess with the 3, as I like the 3 thru 6 chording. I use that chording for my intros. I also put a windsaver on the 5 blow. It never gets in the way and is useful on some tunes where you can blow that 5 flat down 1/2 tone.

I came across the tuning quite by accident. I had changed a reed and the new one needed tuned. I then tuned the WRONG one. When I noticed the difference, I liked it. A week later, I did the 9 reed too. Caution: sometimes it isn't a good idea to cut the 9. Depends on how much you like to lay on the upper register. I happen to like it, and always appreciated what Jimmy Reed could do with those 'squeekers'. Honest I Do is an example.

That is if you want to stay somewhat traditional style, to
each their own. I believe if you have that 5 draw raised a half step, you
would then be able to bend it back down, anyone shed any light on that, I know it
has to do with the relation to the 5 blow note.

Yes, once you tune the 5 draw up, it is easy enough to bend it back down. The thing was (for me) that raising the 5 opened an enormous plethora of pop tunes. Caution, on really fast tunes (Rocky Top as an example), you WON't be able to get that note bent down fast enough while chugging because the 'jet lag' from breath switching is too great.

I have about 75-80 tunes that I can play using that tuning (which I call 'smokey tuning'), Tunes like: After the Lovin, Cupid, Daddys Home, The End of The World, Frosty the Snowman, Georgia, Hey There Lonely Girl, Penthouse Serenade, If I Were a Bell, La la la la Means I Love You, Love Walked in, My Love, Mr Blue, Oh Boy, Put Your Head on my Shoulder, Someone to Watch Over me, Save the Last Dance for me, The Street Where You Live, P.S. I Love You, Sunny Side of the Street, These Foolish Things, Tragedy, Under the Boardwalk, Up on the Roof, Venus, Watching all the girls go by, Walkin my baby back Home, White Sport Coat, You may say I'm a Dreamer, Londonderry Aire (Danny Boy) AND almost all country western.

I played 1 tune on the last Ryman Christmas party (75, 76?) as a guest of Ernest Tubb. Marty Robbins was the headliner. I played Frosty. I used one harp , modulated to the next higher key and used 1 other harp (total=2). Most players were using 4 harps because of the bridges. Cutting the reeds lets you do tunes that would normally need 2 harps to use only 1. Another harmonica player (Jim Rydell, Raydell,?) asked me how I was doing it so I showed him.

smokey-joe

Thanks



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