Re: [Harp-L] legato

[philharpn@xxxxxxx]

The famous Doug Tate, former SPAH president, used to say the trick to faking legato on the harmonica to make the "smooth" or easy notes rougher so all notes are equally rough. That way the "easy" notes don't stand out from the changed breath notes.


He is the guy who invented the Renaissance chromatic harmonica and was quite adept at playing classical pieces. He also wrote a couple of books about repairing and playing harmonica. I heard him speak several times at SPAH, so I con't know if this tip was in his books or not.


Obviously there is no easy solution unless you count changing the musical piece to a key that lies better the harmonica for THAT piece. I don't recall whether he ever suggested this, but he could have. Transposing was no big deal for him.


Hope this helps,
Phil Lloyd





-----Original Message-----
From: Music Cal <macaroni9999@xxxxxxxxx>
To: harp-L list <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Mon, Aug 11, 2014 6:01 pm
Subject: [Harp-L] legato


It is often said that one of the quirks of the harmonica (I play chrom
only) is that for some pitch transitions, in particular ones involving a
change in breath direction, playing legato is difficult.

Questions: To what extent can this deficit be overcome or masked? What have
you done (besides pitch layout changes) to overcome or mask this limitation?

Thanks,
Daniel