[Harp-L] Learning The Chord Harp

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

So, a couple of months ago..., I bought a chord harp from Coast2Coast. 
I was, fortunately not breathless with excitement, but began trying to
figure it out. 
At Kerrville, Michael Rubin had his bass harp and Norton Buffalo joined in
on Chromatic, ending up with a jam that was, at least for me, a !!lot!! Of
fun. 
But up until tonight, I've played the instrument as something
new/foreign/different/unfamiliar etc, and my whole treatment of it has been
colored by that perception. 

But tonight... I first imagined the most simplistic, formulaic groove, a
Reggae version of Knocking on Heaven's Door in bb. 
I started out by playing the chords on the off-beat the way you do in
Reggae. 
There are several ways one can go with Knocking on Heaven's  door in Bb, but
I chose the pattern
Bb . F  .  C-minor . Eb  . 

After getting comfortable with this, (I hope my neighbors felt comfortable
with it too...) I began doing what I've come to call jumping the slots on
the c-minor.
That is, I'd play half the notes on the c-minor chord and half from the
g-minor to its right on the harp. 
I was getting these delightful suspended chords, remminiscent of something a
horn section might do. 
And... In "jumping the slots" like that, I achieved a physical connection
with the instrument for the first time.  That is, it seemed to belong to me
and to be in on the plan/idea of doing that song... That way. 
Michael and I are planning to work up some arrangements that will hopefully
be a little more complicated than was Knocking on Heaven's Door, but I
really got enthused after doing all that.
And while I'm on the subject of the chord harp, does anyone have any
thoughts about not just amplifying a chord harp, but possibly applying
choruses/delays/modeling/magic-filters and such?
Brad Trainham