Re: [Harp-L] History of harp tuning; Chrom Tuning

[Dale Dutridge <daledut@xxxxxxxxx>]

I mostly lurk and soak in the knowledge on this forum. But I feel I need to
speak up on behalf of those who are less musically talented and were
rescued from oblivion by alternate tunings.
I have been granted a moderate amount of musical ability, but at heart I am
a technician (currently making my living as a broadcast engineer at a
Christina TV station).
I first tried the harmonica in 1985 in Germany while stationed there in the
Army.  I bought a Chromatic 270 and proceeded ,without any instruction, to
really stink at it.  It was not for lack of trying - I even got reprimanded
for playing it while on guard duty (but that is a rant for another occasion
:-) )
I also tried diatonic but was not able (in 10 years of trying) to isolate
notes.  So I went around puffing and wheezing out terrible attempts at
melodies.
I finally gave up and added harmonica to my list of failed instruments
(failed at trumpet, Guitar and Piano).
I could sing but always wanted to play an instrument.
Through my recording efforts I met George Miklas around 1997 and he
inspired me to try again.
On my own I finally discovered that if I tilted the harp back I could play
a single note.  So I was off and running, only to discover that some of my
favorite hymns could not be played on the lower end of a diatonic harp. I
spent many hours trying to master playing tunes only to be constantly
frustrated by missing notes.
One day I heard about Paddy Richter tuning and after much experimentation
was able to tune a hohner blues harp to pr tuning.  This finally opened up
the ability to play most hymns and southern Gospel songs. I stuck with PR
tuning for many years.
I now am falling in love with spiral tuning because it gives me all the
notes I need as well as chords and the ability to bend notes for effect.
I still try and struggle to learn to use standard richter tuning and bend
to certain notes.  But in the meantime the alternate tuning of PR and
Spiral tuning has allowed me to enjoy playing and minister to others with
music.
I will never be a great musician, but people like my playing and I am
respected in my small circle.... and I contend that I would not be playing
at all if it had not been for alternate tunings.
I would never tell anyone to give up their richter harp just because I did,
but for me it was the right move.

Dale


On Thu, May 15, 2014 at 10:03 AM, Slim Heilpern <slim@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> On May 15, 2014, at 4:15 AM, Brendan Power wrote:
>
> > Interesting thread. Although Iâm firmly in the camp of the alt-tuning
> > advocates, I can appreciate what Slim says also, when he suggests stick
> with
> > one tuning and master it.
> ...
>
> I'd just like to clarify my point of view on this. I agree with everything
> Brendan went on to say in his post, although I personally find that
> alternate tunings are too hard for my brain to adjust to after all these
> years of playing only solo-tuned chromatic.
>
> The point that I was trying to make was in response to the notion that
> solo tuning is problematic or illogical. I'm not suggesting that folks
> shouldn't pursue other tunings or shouldn't master as many as they like.
> Brendan and others have shown quite convincingly that at least some of us
> have the capacity to use many different tunings to great advantage and I
> have the deepest respect for those that do -- Brendan is such a shining
> example of this!
>
> But I do take issue with the notion that standard tuning is what's holding
> a player back, or that it would be easier to start out with a tuning that
> seems (on the face of it) to make more sense. In my opinion, it's all too
> easy to blame the instrument or its tuning for lack of progress when it
> tends to be that progress is difficult regardless of tuning, and the player
> needs to simply hang in there and embrace the instrument and its tuning to
> get beyond the current blockade, whatever it is. Things about the
> instrument that seemed to be problematic can turn magically into assets
> over time -- that's been my experience with solo-tuned chromatic.
>
> There's another angle as well that has to do with what I would call a
> common vocabulary with respect to standard tunings -- having a standard,
> whatever it is, can be helpful in teaching and for those who learn by
> copying. But really, my main point is that I don't think that the great
> harmonica masters who've chosen to stick with Richter diatonics or Solo
> chroms have been hampered by their choice. It's their musicality and
> dedication, not note layout, that make them great.
>
> Regardless of the tuning(s) you choose, focus on the music -- the axe is
> just a vehicle, it's not making the music.
>
> - Slim.
>
> www.SlideManSlim.com
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