Re: [Harp-L] Ode Challenge Revisited (was Augmented)

[Richard Hunter <turtlehill@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Joe and Cass Leone wrote:
<When doing T.D.'s (tommy dorsey's), or Pinetop Boogies, I use all 3
<of those bends. Piece of cake.


Okay, can you please post a simple recording somewhere so the rest of us 
can hear how indistinguishable the bent note is from every other note in 
the line?

All of us use those bends all the time.  The question is whether you can 
make the tone, timbre and pitch of that bent note absolutely consistent 
with what's going on around it.  No one in the first ode to Joy 
Challenge could do it, and the participants included some pretty heavy 
hitters.

My guess is that it just can't be done, because you MUST change the 
shape of your resonant chamber--mouth, throat, etc.--to hit the bend, 
and that MUST change the sound of the note in some way.

I'll be frank: I can't do it, and I work on it frequently. I can of 
course make the bends work in a musical context for most of what I do, 
but I wouldn't play the Ode to Joy in second position in the bottom 
octave of a standard Richter in front of a concert audience.

The best any artist can do is make the change in timbre work musically, 
which of course is what we all do.  But that's not the same thing.

Like I said: if you think otherwise, show us a recording.  That's the 
challenge.

Regards, Richard Hunter
latest mp3s and harmonica blog at http://myspace.com/richardhunterharp