[Harp-L] Re: 9 draw raised

[Rick Epping <rickepping@xxxxxxxxx>]

George Winston came up with a development of the 5&9 draw raised tuning,
which he got from me some years ago.  He realized that in this tuning he
never used the 10 blow note and so started retuning it a semitone lower,
which creates the third of the tonic chord in 2nd position.  I've tuned a
few of my 5&9 harps this way and agree with him about its usefulness.  The
only reason I wouldn't do so to all my 5&9 harps is that it makes it more
difficult to retune them back to standard if I'm stuck for a standard-tuned
harp.

I first recorded with a 5&9 harp on the 1975 Mulligan LP, Pumpkinhead,
having come up with the tuning around 1968.  Actually, I probably used one
on the 1972 Takoma LP, The Floating House Band, but I'm not sure.  My most
recent recording with a 5&9 harp is on the CD, Music from the Atlantic
Fringe, which has just been released on the Compass label.

Best regards,
Rick


> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Tue, 17 Nov 2009 21:20:12 -0500
> From: Jonathan Ross <jross38@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: [Harp-L] 9 draw raised
> To: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
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>
> Steve Baker writes (in regards to Country tuning):
>
> "interest more players in the many wonderful options the raised 7th
> in 5-draw offers (though I never raise 9-draw und never really
> grasped the reason for doing so),"
>
> It depends on whether you want to keep a blow bend in hole 9 or have
> an octave available in the draw.  It's also a matter of ease--if you
> swap reedplates from an LO to make a country tuned harp you'd have to
> retune the 9 draw back down.
>
> I am also a big fan of country tuning, a great and very versatile
> tuning which requires essentially no relearning and which I became
> aware of from none other than Steve Baker's "Harp Handbook" (buy it
> if you haven't already).
>
>
>
> JR Ross
>
>
>
>