[Harp-L] Hotel California instrumental break on diatonic harp

[The Iceman]

<<But a diatonic HAS no slide and a lot of notes have to be 'manufactured' out of thin air. And some of them have to be hit spot ON in the already bent position. Hard to do in the best of times>>

"Hard to do""It takes YEARS to learn how to bend correctly"
Old statements like this perpetuate the problem....actually, hit spot ON in the already bent position is not that difficult to do....One can learn how to bend correctly within a few weeks....
However, old dogs have a hard time giving up that old towel they have clamped in their teeth.

-----Original Message-----
From: JOSEPH LEONE <3n037 at xxxxx>
To: Laurent Vigouroux <laurent.vigouroux at xxxxx>; Robert Hale <ynfdwas at xxxxx>

Laurent, Mon Ami, 

I'm not entirely sure that Mr. Hale's message wasn't meant for me. Probably because I used the term "I used a chromatic". Since the Duke of Wail uses diatonics a lot. And we coorespond frequently. ALL in fun. Having said that, I agree with the thing about pitch/timbre.


I hope everyone knows how excrucuatingly difficult it is to do the refrain part of this piece? I myself only play the lead melody at that point. I only try for note for note on the chorus at the end of the tune. The Joe Walsh section. Which is hard enough. It requires a lot of slide action and a few breath switches.


But a diatonic HAS no slide and a lot of notes have to be 'manufactured' out of thin air. And some of them have to be hit spot ON in the already bent position. Hard to do in the best of times. Reminds me of players whom persist in playing Parker, Davis, and Coltrane licks note for note when they (may) forget that those tunes were written for instruments where 10 fingers (sax), 9 (clarinet), 3.. or 4 (trumpet), are working. AND in keys that are sometimes unfriendly to harp. AND with notes laid out in such a fashion that are friendly to THEIR instrument but unfriendly to harp. All this done with just a mouth on a diatonic. Naah, too tough for me. I'll take a rain check. 


Even tougher to sound good against guitar since it is a chording instrument. So..Me (personally) I thought it was a stellar job. And while the pitch and timbre weren't right on (and who really IS), I was impressed. I would use an A chromo. and play it in Dm. That would result in terminal key of Bm IF I wanted to be in original key. Me? I use a Bb in Dm. Which results in Cm.  lolol


smo-joe