[Harp-L] Fun gig last night

[Rick Davis <bluesharpamps@xxxxxxxxx>]

The Roadhouse Joe band played a club in Golden CO last night, and we had a
guest singer for the first set.  Our regular singer had to arrive late, so
we invited A.C. -- a guy who fronts another local blues band -- to sit in.

He's also a fine harp player.  He builds and plays what he calls a
Diminished harp.  Here's how he described it to me in an email:

=============================
The Diminished harp I use now is made from the Marine Band 12 Hole Soloist
(the 364).

The Diminished tuning I use starts with C (same C as the first hole of a
regular C harp). The layout is below (first column are blow notes, second
are draw notes): I'm not sure if you can call the positions the same on it
as on a regular diatonic. The idea behind the tuning is that the draw notes
are two half notes above the blow notes so you can bend each draw note a
half, and each blow note is a half a step above the previous draw note = you
get a chromatic scale using regular bends. All patterns repeat each other so
learning the three patterns (blow pattern, bend pattern and draw pattern)
allows you to play all twelve keys with a single harp. Intonation is a bitch
- I struggle with that but forcing myself to do it :)

1    C, D
2    Eb,F
3    F#,G#
4    A, B
5    C, D
6    Eb,F
7    F#,G#
8    A, B
9    C, D
10  Eb,F
11  F#,G#
12  A, B
======================================

I think Dan Treanor uses a similar harp.

A.C. sounded great and the contrast between his cool chromatic-ish playing
and my second position honking is kind of cool.  Here's a clip recorded with
a Zoom H4 laying on one of the tables.

http://www.roadhousejoe.com/files/07-tore-down.mp3


-Rick Davis
The Blues Harp Amps Blog
http://www.bluesharpamps.blogspot.com/
www.roadhousejoe.com