Re: [Harp-L] NAILED MY HOLY GRAIL! DELAYED OCTAVE on the Concerto



I could hear it as plain as day.  Something goes up in pitch at some point, 
but I am not sure if that was an errant note being played a reed popping. 
 Pretty cool!

I've had a couple of oddities like this too - hard to play on command and 
uncommon.  For example, I am positive I can hear a low octave sound when 
playing certain keys.  I was able to confirm this on a studio recording 
where the E harp I was playing had the equivalent of an octave down (think 
POG or Boss OC2) on the isolated track.  You can't really hear it when it 
is mixed with the band, but I know its there!

The one I have been able to nail down a little is playing with such a tight 
cup that a note on the upper register sounds, but that isn't really all 
that new to people.  When tuning octaves, I've had some weird wobbly 
sounds, but have always dismissed it as inconsistent gapping, a burr, or 
bad tuning, lol!

On Thursday, November 1, 2012 6:40:50 PM UTC-5, David Payne wrote:
>
> Have you ever said you heard or saw something and for years people keep 
> telling you "this thing you heard or saw, it does not exist" or at maybe 
> you can least imagine what if that were the case? Let's say you got nasally 
> probed by space aliens and told folks... they said there are no space 
> aliens, it's your imagination, you must be crazy. Then, one day, you're at 
> a party and the space aliens land and tell everybody "He was right. We are 
> nasal-probing aliens from space." Imagine how you'd feel. 
> That stuff never happens, except in the movies.... and except to me a few 
> minutes ago. If I'd heard that song 15 minutes earlier, I would never have 
> posted Black Magic Woman for the Bluesified Concerto sound sample. I would 
> have used this. 
>
> There is a technique called the delayed octave, whether that's an apt 
> description of it, I don't know, that's just what it's called.  It's a 
> really rare technique that only two people I know of can do it, the 
> inventor, Dom Sgro, and Phil Caltebellotta. Last time I heard Danny G play, 
> he was really close to it and was getting it on some of his octaves.  It's 
> a double-stop octave technique where part of the octave pulses in and out. 
> It's NOT a beat, one of the notes is delayed and that creates this special 
> pulse. 
> So, probably 99 percent of players have never even heard of it. Probably 
> 90 percent of players can't hear it when it happens. Many people many, 
> many, many times have told me when I've pointed out where I've heard it and 
> tried to show it have said "you are hearing nothing. this does not exist." 
>
> I was listening to the record of Tuesday's Huntington Harmonica Club jam. 
> I got to the part where I was playing a lead on "Spooky" and there it was, 
> bigger than life, the most extremely obvious delayed octave I've ever 
> heard. I don't know how anybody could not possibly not hear this. I was 
> playing tongue-block octaves on an Elk River Bluesified Seydel Concerto in 
> D, I believe. When .you play a traditional tongue-block octave on a 
> Concerto, you are playing four notes spread out over three octaves. Let's 
> say you are playing a 1-4 draw split on a C. You would have four reeds 
> sounding, a D3, D4, D4, and D5.  I suspect maybe that the combination of 
> all these octaves made it possible somehow, because, as a player, I have 
> chased this technique for years on the chromatic.  I did not hear the 
> octave pulsate when I was playing. But, as I listen to the recording, there 
> it is plain as day. In this four-reed octave, three reeds - the lowest reed 
> and the two middle 
>  reeds are ringing like a normal octave. The highest reed, however, 
> pulsates, Dom-Sgro style.  
>
> And it happened completely by accident. The bad news is, I have no idea 
> how I did it, but I have a guess. The first time it pulsed perfectly, then 
> it pulsed again kind of off, which makes me think I hit that octave 
> mistakenly with too much of a bend embouchure. I don't know. But, believe 
> me, I will be doubling my efforts to figure this out and do it on command.
> The delayed-octave pulse is at seconds 28 and 29. The second, lesser pulse 
> that goes out of tune is at 00:30. When I play the riff the second time, no 
> pulse.
> Somebody this time, please tell me they can hear this delayed-octave 
> pulse. Please tell me I am not crazy. I might sound crazy by being so 
> excited about this, but I'm sure all can understand the excitement of 
> chasing a technique for years and then it finally happens. As a player, 
> nothing of this personal magnitude has happened to me since I was about 12 
> years old and finally got a draw bend.  
>
> http://www.elkriverharmonicas.com/delayedoctaveconcertospooky.mp3
>
>
> Of course, in the back of my mind, there's a fear nobody will be able to 
> hear this one, either, I thought the others were really obvious, too. But, 
> I'm pretty confident this time. 
>
> David Payne
> www.elkriverharmonicas.com 
>
>


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