Re: [Harp-L] Anyone else give bass harp a real try? My bass story.

[Winslow Yerxa <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>]

Note that the Harmonicats former bassist, Dick Gardner, is likely coming to SPAH and participating in a four-way bass harmonica seminar. His cello-like tone on bass is to die for.

My own experience with bass is that:

1) It takes much more wind than chromatic or diatonic harmonicas, being all blow and having big double reeds

2) You can get good tone but it requires using that wind. The upper and lower registers require very different approaches - what works up high will make the reeds blank out down low.

3) Deck switching - between the lower deck (all the key of C "white notes") and the upper deck (all the sharps and flats) is something I've never taken the time to get good at.

Despite the above, I find that playing some bass in the morning does a lot to make my mood eupeptic (the opposite of dyspeptic).

Winslow

Winslow Yerxa

Author, Harmonica For Dummies ISBN 978-0-470-33729-5