RE: [Harp-L] Chord Harp

["Bradford Trainham" <bradford.trainham@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Moderately priced?  Don't know the answer to that one.
I got the Suzuki 48-chord harp for about $840 from Coast2Coast about seven
months ago. 
Financial considerations aside, I think the answers to all your other
questions would be an enthusiastic (from my end) yes!
For about the first four months after I got mine, I was excited, but I
definitely felt like I was a novice dealing with a novelty.
I was having fun, but largely directionless in terms of a personal goal or a
practice strategy.
(I say personal goal because I bought the harp to participate in a harmonica
band which didn't exist at the time, but certainly exists now.)
As I began to practice with said band, (whose hname is in the works and
hence may not be revealed/speculated-upon) I began to somehow internalize
the intent of the design and that was when the chord harp, for me ceased to
be an alien and became instead a tantalyzing mystery.
There's a logic, especially on the bottom row where all those diminished and
augmented chords are, and once I began to puzzle that out, (Oh, and Michael
Rubin has been a tremendous!! Help with that puzzle!) my practice took on a
life of its own and it became less of a chore and more of a gratifying
challenge.
I think it has indeed helped me with all the other harps I play and it might
not be a coincidence that my chromatic playing specifically has really taken
off since I bought the chord harp. 
As soon as I can electrify the harp I want to find some unsuspecting
folk-rock outfit and ensenuate myself into that to see if I could use the
chord harp, probably in conjunction with Richard Hunter's patch set for the
Digitech RP355 as a credible 21st-century retro-rhythm instrument, but I
have to buy the mic first and that will lead us full circle back to
financial considerations as its price is just a taste beyond the moderate. 
But to summarize, if you're thinking about doing it, man, you oughta do it!!
Let us know,
Brad Trainham
 

-----Original Message-----
From: harp-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx [mailto:harp-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf
Of Walter Scanlon
Sent: Sunday, December 27, 2009 11:17 PM
To: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [Harp-L] Chord Harp

My harp bag includes all the diatonic keys and three respectable chromatics.
Besides playing Polkas, is there any good reason to add a chord harp to my
collection, and if so, which one might be recommended? Will working with a
chord harp improve my diatonic and chromatic, blues, jazz and classical
playing?  Can I entertain myself by having one? (Or would I bore myself to
death?) What would be a moderate priced chord harp to purchase. I hope these
questions don't sound too stupid!

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