[Harp-L] 20th Anniversary of the Half-Valved Harmonica

["Brendan Power" <bren@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Nowadays we're blessed with a cornucopia of diatonic harmonica types and
performance options: from Overblowing to the Overdrive, Discrete Combs to
the TurboSlide, the ELX to the XB-40. 

It's easy to forget that after the production of the first popular 10 hole
diatonic harmonica (the iconic 1896 Hohner Marine Band), very little
development of the format occurred for 90 years. There were some cosmetic
changes (eg. moulded plastic and alloy combs in some models), but in terms
of actual functionality and construction the 10 hole harp remained basically
the same: a comb, two coverplates and two reedplates.

That all changed in 1991 with the launch of Suzuki's Promaster MR350-V, the
first 10 hole diatonic to offer players something totally new. It included
10 valves, strategically placed to allow extra bending expression on the
low-pitched notes in each hole (the lower 6 blow notes and the upper 4 draw
notes) in addition to the double-reed bends already available.
 
I'm proud to have been the originator of the half-valved concept for
diatonic (and chromatic) harps. The format is becoming increasingly popular,
especially through the work of PT Gazell in the swing jazz style he plays so
well, but also in the folk/Irish scene (most harp players choose half-valved
harps for that music). Seydel's introduction of the PT Gazell Method
half-valved harps last year is an indication of the growing interest.

To mark the 20th anniversary of the launch of the original half-valved harp,
I have recorded a video on how the idea came to me and was taken up by
Suzuki, as well as performance examples of the benefits of half-valving:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtxuZXcCNd8

Enjoy!

Brendan Power
WEBSITE: http://www.brendan-power.com   
YOUTUBE: http://www.youtube.com/BrendanPowerMusic