Re: [Harp-L] alternate tunings for bluegrass?

[Robert Coble <robertpcoble@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Bill!

My bad (I guess): I was trying to say that IMHO it is easier to play bluegrass IN GENERAL on an alternate tuning than 
on the "standard" Richter tuning. That is NOT to say that it is impossible; you, Harmonica Bob Meehan, Glenn Weiser, 
Wailin' Wood, PT Gazell, Mike Stevens and a host of others certainly do a fine job on the "standard" Richter tuning. 
There are specific songs that can be played easily on the "standard" Richter tuning (and just as easily on an alternate 
tuning). There are other songs which are very difficult to play correctly on a "standard" Richter tuning, but which are 
easily played on an alternate tuning. My PERSONAL PREFERENCE is to focus on playing the song, not on forcing an 
instrument to do things that it wasn't designed for and making THAT sound musical. I don't belong to the "fake it 'til 
you make it" school of instruction. Alternate tunings (specifically, Circular Tuning) get me closer to MY musical goals.

I stand by what I wrote below:

"If the student is going to play primarily bluegrass, OTM, Celtic, etc., then a
Paddy Richter, Country Tuning, or Spiral 
(Circular-my favorite!) Tuning would be more appropriate.
I do not concur that the student should have to "pay her 
dues" by struggling to make the
instrument perform in the desired manner, only to "discover" that there are much 
easier ways
to get the desired MUSIC out of a different instrument. Making music should always be the goal,
not 
mastery of an instrument that does not cooperate with the musician."

The center octave on the "standard" Richter tuning has all of the diatonic notes in the given scale. However, that is 
the ONLY complete octave. Yes, you can achieve the "missing" notes through bending, but you will STRUGGLE for a long
time to reach a passable intonation at speed. It's not IMPOSSIBLE; it just takes a lot more time and effort than most
people want to expend. Mike Stevens (one of my heroes of harp) certainly has no problems with playing bluegrass at 
speed! My observation was in regard to introducing alternate tunings to a student. Why force a student to learn to play
with difficulty what can be achieved with relative ease? What is the STUDENT'S goal? If a student comes to me and
declares that he wants to emulate Howard Levy and play everything on a single Richter tuned harp, I won't try to talk
them out of it (but I will point out that it may take about 10,000 hours of hard practice). My goal as an INSTRUCTOR
is to assist the student to reach HER GOALS as easily and quickly as possible; MY musical goals are irrelevant to that
student. If I can't help the student toward her goals, I will recommend study with someone else who is better equipped
to help that student. One size does NOT fit all, and a man's gotta know his limitations.

An alternate tuning gives a richer set of chords than the "standard" Richter tuning. For bluegrass, that means you can
comp the rhythm more closely, without having to do substitutions such as an octave instead of the actual chord. Using 
a "C" harp as an example, if you play in 1st position, you have two chords: the I ("C") and V7 ("G7") but the IV ("F")
is missing. Switching to 2nd position changes the available chords to the I ("G") and IV ("C") but without a V7 chord 
("D7"). Since a lot of OTM is primarily 3-chord songs, that becomes a limitation (to ME), not an advantage.

I'm not trying to convince anyone to switch tunings. <SHRUG> I was just trying to give my own answer to the original 
two questions regarding pedagogy. Different strokes for different folks, and I love listening to it all; I just don't want to
have to work as hard to make MUSIC. (I must be one LAZY harp-sucker!) Might that also be true of some students?

Hope you are well and having a blast playing bluegrass! I love your music!
Crazy Bob