[Harp-L] Howard Levy Amazing Grace- The "Drone" part

["samblancato" <samblancato@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi, 

 

Somebody who didn't sign his post wrote: 

 

"The real clincher is this part where is playing the melody but
sustaining an almost "bagpipe" drone at the same time. Has anyone tried this
technique. How does this work?"

 

This is done with tongue blocking.  On the left side you're alternating on
the draw 2 and blow 3 holes and on the right side you're playing the melody.
If the melody (right) calls for a blow note you blow 3 (left), if the next
note in the melody calls for a draw note (right) you draw 2 (left) at the
same time.  It's really hard to learn this and takes a lot of coordination.
A local player here in Pittsburgh, Charley Barath, can do it really well.
I've heard him do Amazing Grace, Danny Boy, and Scotland the Brave.  I've
tried it.  It's hard to do.  I got a couple of snippets of melody line to
sound right once or twice but that's it.  It's just a matter of spending a
lot of time working at it. I think it could be a cool technique to learn and
apply to something other than the typical Scotch/Irish stuff.

 

Sam Blancato, Pittsburgh