Re: [Harp-L] How Does William Clarke Do It? Chromatic 6 Hole Draw Wail

[Jp Pagán <jplpagan@xxxxxxx>]

--- In harp-l-archives@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, ColdRail <gwoodhouse40@...> wrote:
>
> We all know that the man was an absolute fabulous player but I have a 
> specific question......My band has been playing his great chromatic jump 
> tune "Blowin' Like Hell" and pulling it off pretty well but I can not 
> really get that 6 hole draw bending wail that he plays around 1:11 on the 
> recorded version from his record of the same name. 


I'm gonna hazard a guess here for fun. I have the track on my computer and I've listened to it a few times:

 I think he's switching to a diatonic right at that point. a.) there's a nice little pause right before that line and another one about 10 seconds later. b.) in between those two pauses, it sounds like the tone changes just a bit. a little more driven, a little.... tighter. I think it's a diatonic. 

I'd like to see if those who know Clarke's playing better than agree or not. I know wails can be done on the chromatic—I'm not saying that can't. I just think in this case he switched...

-JP

--- In harp-l-archives@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, ColdRail <gwoodhouse40@...> wrote:
>
> We all know that the man was an absolute fabulous player but I have a 
> specific question......My band has been playing his great chromatic jump 
> tune "Blowin' Like Hell" and pulling it off pretty well but I can not 
> really get that 6 hole draw bending wail that he plays around 1:11 on the 
> recorded version from his record of the same name.  I can get a paltry 
> immitation of it with a little bit of vibrato and shallow bending but I 
> can't seem to get quite enough bend before the reed chokes out.  In fact a 
> couple of days ago I was working on this very note and trying different 
> tongue positions, mouth cavity shapes, and pressures and had the reed fail 
> on my CX-12 Bb.  I doubt it was just this session that caused the failure 
> but it probably is me trying to wail this note for the last year that 
> shortened the life of this reed.  Mr. Clarke employed this same wail in 
> some of his other recorded chromatic tunes.  Is there something in the 
> setup (like windsaver removal) that allowed him to get that degree of 
> bending?  Is a more traditional Hohner chrom more bendable versus the 
> CX-12?  Or is it just the magic that we allow know Bill possessed?
>  
> Thanks, Glenn
>

--Jp