Re: [Harp-L] smo-jo math class

[Joseph Leone <3n037@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Jun 17, 2014, at 12:55 PM, JON KIP wrote:

> If anyone, including Joe, follows this math logic, congratulations. My mouth and 4.5 of my fingers followed 67.3% of it nicely. My brain was smart enough to not get overly involved.
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> And, joe, what's that in Dog Years?

Don't know. But my cat Elmo lasted 21 years. She hated sax and clarinet, loved harmonica. Go figure. lolol

A sax is (usually) on a hanger, and (theoretically) can be played with all 10 fingers. A clarinet has a thumb rest and you usually use only 9. A trumpet uses 3. Inside the tumblers are pistons or valves that channel air to the other barrels. There are (basically) 9 positions to a 'set'. To exceed that you change your embouchure. As you ascend, the fingering changes. 
You can do some tunes without ever touching a valve. Trumpets are (comparatively) easy. Because they are pucker, they can be played at an almost spitting speed. 

Chromatic is comparatively hard. Even if you're slide is fast, breath switching can trip you up. And every time you change keys, the reed set up changes. So, being a dual direction instrument, the notes that were blow become draw, and vice versa. AND this may necessitate a change in slide direction...AND it may also require a hole change. OR a combination of 2 or more. Not true with other wind instruments. FWIW, diatonics are even harder. If you magically manufacture notes from thin air that aren't even built into the harp to begin with. 

smo-joe  
> 
> jk (realizing that there's another meaning to "WWJD?" than the more widely accepted and somewhat religious one)
> On Jun 16, 2014, at 8:02 AM, harp-l-request@xxxxxxxxxx wrote:
> 
>> Because one mouth can never keep up with 10 fingers. OR in the case of trumpet, 3 fingers..BUT because of the criss crossed air passages, roughly equivalent to 9 fingers
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> jon kip
> http://jonkip.com
> 
> player of music, mostly written by dead people and played on a toy that everybody's Uncle except my nephew's has the good sense to keep safely out of sight in a drawer.
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