[Harp-L] PowerBender: Initial thoughts

[Eric Miller <miller.eric.t@xxxxxxxxx>]

Again, I post this instead of direct to Brendan because I think his tunings
represent the future of  the instrument and deserve as much discussion and
visibility as we can afford it.  Until *beginning *harp players start
picking up a bender as their first harp instead of a richter...then the
idea hasn't realized its full potential.  There's really no good reason to
struggle through overblows/customizing when this is a viable option.

There's a  Richard Sleigh vid where he refers to the SUB30 as "the future
of blues harmonica".  While the SUB30 and Brendan's tunings aren't the same
thing: they loosely address the same issue: *making the diatonic more
chromatically useful and expressive without having to master overblows and
harp tweaking.*

I've had my powerbender for less than 24 hours, and my raunchy flat 3rds
and 5ths in the mid / upper register are really just that easy: draw bends.
 The fact that you can *truly *bend them (down into them and up out of
them) is really huge.

I can OB the 6 hole on a Richter consistently, but it's a lot of work to
fit it into riffs cleanly.  On the bender, the funky notes are just draw
bends, and I can trem them easily too, instead of being slave to that
"stick" point that the OB has.  Holes 9 and 10 are (as Brendan says in the
book) a little tricky to get, but its more of an embouchure tightening than
a complete different technique.  They stick like an OB for me at the
moment...more on/off not a bend per se.

So, I'm a fan...still working out some riffs before I put up a vid or
something.  (sure, Brendan can play his own fancy schmancy tuning...but
what about Joe Bag O'Doughnuts like me?  well...the first few sessions with
it have been encouraging, stay tuned (pun intended))

ONE POINT:  if you are like me and spend most of your time in cross harp
(and prefer to stay there for the most part)...then consider the *powerdraw
*tuning in addition to (or maybe instead of) the powerbender.  I plan to
order a powerdraw here shortly.  The reason?  Well, I don't think I can
live without the old standby cliche' blues harp lick: 4draw bend>4draw>5
draw +shake.

This lick (and the shake) *can *be reproduced on the powerbender...but  you
have to jump up to the 6 *blow *to get that 5draw note.  It's not a
faithful reproduction though:  the lick loses something intangible
though...its hard to explain.  It's just more expressive / raunchy on the
richter...which is why its such an overused and important note sequence in
blues harp.  That specific interval relationship between the 4 and 5 isn't
limited to that lick...its super important in cross harp.

The solution may  be the  power*draw *tuning for me, which is richter holes
1-6.  It gives me back *all *the 1st octave cliche licks and still takes
the overblows out of the upper half of the harp.  I could be wrong, and
hope Brendan will correct me, but the pdraw may be more specifically suited
to crossharp playing (and thereby more limited in the other positions)
while the pbender offers more to advanced position players.

-ETM