[Harp-L] Re. Limited Instrument

["Brendan Power" <bren@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Interesting discussion (getting unnecessarily heated, methinks).



First, ALL instrument have limitations. It’s a matter of degree, and of
types of limitations. Probably the least limited is a modern keyboard synth,
as it can play chords, do pitch bending on all notes, be configured in
virtually any scale and tuning you want, play thousands of sounds… You can
get some effects (eg. bending) by blowing or vocalising into a tube - or
choose the EWI Electronic Wind Instrument if you want the ultimate horn! The
late great Michael Brecker used its 8 octave range and subtle expression to
amazing effect.



But, if we limit ourselves to acoustic instruments, specifically mouth-blown
ones, then we have a better basis for comparison. However I assume this
discussion was even more restricted, in comparing different kinds of
harmonica, and narrowing down even more to comparing the 10 hole diatonic
with the slider chromatic.



All the posters have good points. Bill is correct about the in-built notes
of the 10 hole harp: they do form a limited scale. Scott and others are also
correct that you can achieve the missing notes via bending and overblows.
Whether you consider those embouchure-acquired notes good sounding is
largely a matter of preference. Some like ‘em, some don’t.



But even if you do, the Richter-tuned 20 reed harp still has limitations:
only 8 notes can be bend down in pitch a semitone or more, for example.
Extra-reed harps (like the sadly withdrawn Hohner XB-40) do overcome those
bending limitations, but the big bending range on each note means that
intonation is more tricky to achieve. Also, you can’t get any fast smooth
trills and decorations as compared to the chromatic harmonica, except
adjacent-hole same-breath ones via jaw movements.



Though the stock chromatic harmonica has all notes of the chromatic scale
built in, as normally configured it could also be considered limited. One
limitation is that it doesn’t allow more than semitone-up slide shifts and
trills/decorations. Lots of music has whole-tone trills and mordents
(classical, jazz, folk) as integral parts of their music. That’s a serious
limitation right there, as any classical harmonicist would tell you.



Also, being fully valved, the chrom doesn’t allow interactive-reed bending.
That can be partially overcome with half-valving and retuning, as I have
done on all my chroms since 1980, but it still leaves half the reeds
valve-affected and without interactive-reed bending. I like that type of
bending, so that’s a limitation in my eyes - though it wouldn’t be for
most chrom players, who are happy enough with the stock chrom. Limitations
are not absolute, they are perceived and vary for different people!



In all the discussion we’re talking about harmonicas that have remained
largely unchanged for a century or more. I think many of these limitations,
real or perceived, can be overcome by new harmonica designs - and soon will
be. For example I’ve been working on some fresh approaches to solving just
these issues, and I’m intending to release harmonicas soon that deal with
many of the issues above. The first will be released by the end of this
month.



Brendan Power

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