Re: [Harp-L] Out of tune with the guitarist...

[MundHarp@xxxxxxx]

Back in the 1960's I did a recording session playing my  harmonica, with a 
C&W band . One track was a cover of "Leaving on a Jet  Plane". That song had 
only just been written back then. This was WAY  before electronic tuners" 
and the band had all tuned to their pedal steel  guitar... That was VERY 
flat.... Of course my harp sounded DREADFUL...  There was nothing I could do... 
It was my idea of "hell".. The really sad thing  was that the band was 
excellent. I said to the pedal steel guitarist  "please re-tune to concert pitch" 
he replied "I'm in tune with myself so it's  YOUR problem".
I was still a teenager at the time. It WAS my idea of hell!
I simply put it down to experience. But more than 40 years later,  I 
remember THAT recording session with a shudder... And no, I never got my  fee!
I guess what I am saying is that sometimes... There is nothing you can  do.
But keep playing that mouth organ!
"Tomorrow is also a day".
John "Whiteboy" Walden
Just now in Scotland...
_http://www.reverbnation.com/play_now/song_12109468_ 
(http://www.reverbnation.com/play_now/song_12109468) 
 
 
In a message dated 2/17/2012 12:34:01 A.M. GMT Standard Time,  
kenneth.d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:


>20+ cents out of tune with me...

I was once flown to  Phoenix to add some harp to a track by the Goose Creek 
Symphony.  The  piano in the otherwise excellent studio was in tune but 
sharp, and the  band had naturally turned to it when they cut the original  
track.

The harp sounded horrible.

Luckily, this was 1986,  and they were using an analog tape machine, and 
they had a variable  frequency oscillator.  I suggested that they hook it 
up 
and slow the  tape to where the band was in tune with me, after which they 
could do what  they wanted with it all.

Sounded pretty easy, but we never ever nailed  a fully in-tune track. Maybe 
now they'd just use autotune, but that really  sounds like a lousy idea.

I recently got to hear the track after all  these years, a version of My 
Old 
Kentucky Home, which was sung and played  beautifully.  I've asked other 
people if they hear anything funny  about the harp, and they claim to 
not.  I hear it, so I presume they  are being nice to me, which is luckily 
the normal state of  things.