[Harp-L] Ode to Joy revisited

[Laurent Vigouroux]

Yes, I have exactly the same view of this challenge. Extreme and very interesting as an exercise. By the way, it would be interesting to translate it to the 3' and the 3"', which are also really challenging. 
Interestingly, I'm pretty sure the 4o would be much more playable as this important note. Got to try that myself!

Nowadays (now that the technique is better known and that some wonderful instruments are obtainable), most melodies don't pose the same problem and are playable on a diatonic, even when they require bends and overblows on important notes (but not the extent of the Ode to Joy challenge).

It's incredible how the world of our little instrument has evolved recently

Le 21/04/2018 15:50, « Harp-L au nom de Fred S via Harp-L » <harp-l-bounces at xxxxx au nom de harp-l at xxxxx> a écrit :

    I believe the purpose of the "Ode to Joy Challenge" was to see how close one
    could get to playing it "seamlessly" in 2nd position.  Not that one would
    ever actually do that (in a serious performance context) when first position
    or alternate tunings or chromatics are an option.  So I think this "debate"
    misses the point.  The point IIRC was that it was a "training" challenge to
    see how well intoned with seamless timbre you could make that bent note, and
    OTJ just happened to be a well known melody that highlighted one's efforts
    to make the bent note "transparent".  It is a useful skill in playing the
    Richter tuned diatonic harmonica in a lot of contexts.  The recordings of
    some of the best players in the world attempting this gave us a benchmark
    against which we could judge our efforts.   Not if it met a standard for
    performance, merely a training aid.  IMO
    Fred S