[Harp-L] Ghost Notes on Harmonica

["John F. Potts" <hvyj@xxxxxxx>]

True story:  I have a friend who  plays guitar who is an excellent  
and very disciplined musician.  Many years ago he had several  
opportunities to work with some big time acts, but personal excesses  
and bad habits cost him those jobs.  Now, clean and sober, he teaches  
guitar and jams in his basement with friends for fun.  But, even when  
just jamming for fun, he records everything and expects everyone to  
play the right notes.

Anyway, we're doing some rock tune in a key i don't use much and he  
wants me to play a particular chord.  I'm not familiar enough with  
the names of the chords in that key anyway, so i just start blowing  
and drawing groups of notes in the area of the scale where I'm  
guessing that chord would be found.  No luck.  Then I play a split  
interval on the same part of the harp, and my guitar playing friend  
smiles and says "thats it!"  The double stop I was playing combined  
with the difference tone(s) or ghost note(s) being produced to create  
the desired chord.

I have no idea what i did, but i do know this:  Playing split  
intervals will produce summation and/or differential tones (what i  
and some others call "ghost notes") that are not actually being  
played and that may not even be available on the harmonica.  I'm not  
sure if this generates a chord inversion or chord substitution, or  
what. But what i do know from experience is that the when playing  
split intervals difference tones generated combined with the notes  
actually being played will fit with a much wider variety of material  
than the chords available on the instrument will.  When performing, i  
almost never play chords on a diatonic harmonica.  i almost always  
use split intervals instead.  I have no idea what i am doing, i just  
do it by ear. But it sounds great and works well with all kinds of  
material. Much better than the primitive chords available on the  
instrument.

i don't understand the physics of what happens, and, frankly, i do  
not have a sufficiently well developed ear to be able to identify the  
pitches of the ghost tones i produce.  But it works.

JP