[Harp-L] Stretching Exercises

[Richard Sleigh <rharp@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Interesting thread on stretching the pitch as you go up the octaves.  
When I tune a harp, I have the strobe tuner set at 12 cents sharp for  
baseline. i aim at getting 4 blow right on the money, 7 a TINY bit  
sharper and 10 a hair sharper than 7 I'm watching the pattern and it  
is moving SLOWLY to the right on 7, and a very small amount faster on  
10. All the octaves have to be beat free from a light attack on  
through a heavy attack. In order to do this and compensate for reed  
variations, you can't just follow a formula. You have to play the  
octaves through a range of quiet to loud and then just "make it work"  
by raising or lowering one reed or the other. Then go on to the next  
octave. Blow one almost always has to be a bit sharp to make this work.

My stretching is within the 3 cent variation. It was cool to see the  
Iceman mention that studies show that most people can't tell a  
difference unless it is at least 3 cents or more.

Same process for chords. They may be textbook perfect formula wise and  
sound like crap. Reeds are ornery critters and since they mess with  
you, you gotta mess with them till they behave.

We all end up finding something that works for us by trusting our ears  
and being stubborn enough to keep tuning till we get the hang of it.

Richard Sleigh

P.O. Box 23
Boalsburg PA 16827

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