Re: [Harp-L] Fun gig last night

[ac@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

That was indeed a fun gig!

I thought I'd clarify the bit about Dan Treanor (who is a faboulous guy and also part of this list). I'm not sure if Dan plays the diminished tuning but he actually made a harp for me in that tuning using his own comb. That harp is the most responsive Hohner MS Reedplate harp I ever played - and it came with the added benefit of getting to know Dan a little more. Dan is full of harmonica history and knowledge and one of the truly great representatives of our instrument.


Thanks Rick for the good times at the show!

A.C.
-----Original Message-----
From: Rick Davis [mailto:bluesharpamps@xxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Friday, April 3, 2009 12:07 PM
To: 'Harp-L'
Subject: [Harp-L] Fun gig last night

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 _______________________________________________ Harp-L is sponsored by SPAH, http://www.spah.org Harp-L@xxxxxxxxxx http://harp-l.org/mailman/listinfo/harp-l