[Harp-L] Re: Harp-L Digest, Vol 95, Issue 8

[dmf 273 <dmf273@xxxxxxxxx>]

Date: Sat, 2 Jul 2011 14:55:49 -0700 (PDT)
From: Winslow Yerxa <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [Harp-L] XB-40 recordings


No-one seems to have taken up the XB-40 for its chromatic potential. Perhaps
it's because pitch control is difficult for reeds with a wide bending range.
I
know that David Fairweather (aka jazmaan) was experimenting with tunings
that
restricted all bends to a semitone in order to make pitch control easier,
but I
don't recall that he reported any positive results.

Winslow

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I resemble that remark! ;>

Is this positive enough results for you?

"Moody's Mood for Love"

http://youtu.be/Hbvh8-coLqw

Or maybe this?

"Grazin in the Grass/Do You Know the Way to San Jose/I Say A Little Prayer"
Medley

http://youtu.be/H6ksUBFk9So



Both these songs are played on customized XB-Melody harps.    XB-Melody
tuning starts with an XB-40 and retunes it to Lee Oskar's "Melody Maker"
tuning, but more importantly,  it retunes the responder reeds to a scheme
that gives each note in the chromatic scale a stable home, either unbent or
fully bent.  No in-betweeners!   Sometimes that requires restricting the
bending range to a semi-tone,  sometimes not.   In fact the bending range of
blow 3 is actually expanded to mirror the 1-1/2 step range of its draw
companion.  You can see the layout here at Overblow.Com
http://www.overblow.com/?menuid=26&type=xb40#  where its shown as "3.1
XB-Melody Alternate".