[Harp-L] Spiral tuning for a beginner: which key?
- To: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
- Subject: [Harp-L] Spiral tuning for a beginner: which key?
- From: christoph@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 21 Apr 2015 07:53:02 +0200
- User-agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/24.4 (gnu/linux)
Dear all,
I recently got a Richter-tuned harp in C-major and I can play some
tunes on it. I'm motivated to keep on learning. I'm not
particularly interested in blues, rather in all-round playing. As
a scientifically-minded person I find the irregularities of the
standard tuning irritating, so I got interested in alternative
tunings. I thought I could as well continue learning on a
spiral-tuned harp.
I wonder which key to choose (for the beginning I'd like to get a
single one only). As I'm most interested in playing solo without
other instruments, the relevant criterion seems to be the tonal
range. What would you suggest as a good compromise for all-round
playing? I find the upper tones of my C-major Richter rather
squeaky, while I think that some lower tones wouldn't hurt. But
then, as a beginner, I would like to be able to play simple
C-major tunes without bends at more-or-less their official pitch.
I think this means that I should get a harp where 2-draw is C4.
But won't this one be too low for all-round playing in the lower
octave that starts with 2-draw? Perhaps a better choice is to
choose G4 as 2-draw. But then, if I understand correctly, playing
C5-major will require a bend (perhaps that's easy enough).
It seems to me that Seydelâs default, the âcompromised tuningâ is
a good choice for all-round playing with some chords. Can you
confirm this?
Finally, the manufacturer offers to half-valve the harp. I
understand that this is not something for beginners, but is it a
good idea to half-valve the harp right-away for the future? I
read that this modifies the sound a bit, but otherwise there are
no downsides.
By the way, I notice that even though spiral tuning makes all the
notes of a key directly available, the additional notes from
blow-bends are different from octave to octave (depending on
whether the tonic is on draw or blow). I wonder about the
practical significance of this (also for choosing the key).
Many thanks
Christoph
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