[Harp-L] Re: Brendan's "Power Tunings" now available through SEYDEL

["Brendan Power" <bren@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Thanks Eric Miller, for your positive assessment of PowerDraw tuning and
interesting observations. I’d love to hear what you’re playing on it! Do
you have any recordings or YouTube videos you’d like to share? BTW, tuning
will get quicker the more you do it J



My main 10 hole harp tuning is PowerBender but I have a few PowerDraw harps
in my gig bag for special performance pieces. I play my “Didgeriblues”
drone/soundscape tune in PowerDraw tuning:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQ5DCe_YOGE



It’s interesting how the tunings evolved over the years! In the 1980s I
created a tuning I called Regular-Breath Tuning on 11 hole harps I made from
Hohner Special 20s. I recorded my first album ‘Country Harmonica’ in
1983/84 with them. The harps were pretty innovative in other ways too: first
half-valved diatonics, first use of BluTac for reversible retuning, possibly
the first flattened-back covers. You can see photos of those old harps and
read the story behind them here if you’re interested:



http://www.brendan-power.com/Country%20Harmonica.htm



Regular-Breath mixed a Richter bottom end with a tuning I call
PowerChromatic. I first developed PowerChromatic for my half-valved
chromatics and still use it today. It’s my default chromatic tuning, but I
use it on 12 hole diatonics too.



In the 90s I switched to a tuning called PowerBlow for most of my 10 hole
harp playing. It has holes 1-6 same as Richter, but holes 7-10 are tuned for
blow bending on the same notes that draw bend down the bottom. I recorded my
Blues album “Two Trains Running” with it:



http://www.brendan-power.com/Two%20Trains%20Running.htm



PowerBender came next, using a mirror-image of PowerBlow in holes 7-10: the
same notes but the breath directions reversed.



PowerDraw is the top end of PowerBender fused with holes 1-6 from standard
Richter. I think it is the easiest one for most players to learn, as it
retains all the main established ground that generations of harp players
have worked over, along with easy intuitive draw bends in the top octave.
Plus it retains nice octave splits, which is important for traditional
tongue-block players.



You can see the tuning diagrams for these and others of my tunings here:



http://www.brendan-power.com/Diatonic%20
<http://www.brendan-power.com/Diatonic%20&%20Chromatic%20Tunings.htm>
&%20Chromatic%20Tunings.htm



I’ve created many more obscure tunings too, but those are the main ones I
use.



Brendan Power

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