RE: [Harp-L] Isn't She Lovely... on Diatonic?

[Richard Hunter <turtlehill@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I wrote:
<On a slightly different but related topic, I discovered the other day that almost <all of Stevie's chromatic solo on "For Once In My Life"--a few passing tones in the 
<second 8 bar section excepted--lays out very nicely on a country-tuned diatonic in <2nd position.  

I forgot the most difficult note in the piece on diatonic--the high A# that ends the solo, which on the diatonic has to be played as a half-step bend on blow 10.  Not an easy note to hit with the powerful and clear tone that Wonder puts on the note--blow bends on that reed tend to collapse into the full-step bend pretty quickly.  I would be very, very tempted to tune the blow 10 reed down a half step just to be able to play that big note with the right sound.  As a straight blow note in the top octave, you could certainly put plenty of power on it.

That would create a new tuning, of course: the Wonder tuning, or maybe the Once In My Life tuning.  Now that I think of it, there are a lot of things you could do with that note sitting on top of the instrument.  Hmmm...

Thanks and regards, Richard hunter



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