[Harp-L] Cheating

[Vern]

> On May 7, 2019, at 9:37 AM, Richard Hunter <rhunter377 at xxxxx> wrote:
> 
> Vern wrote:
> <<
> I thought that it would be fun for our band to play ?The Good, the Bad, and
> the Ugly?.  However the ADADA 16th-note riffs were a problem because none
> of our elder musicians could play them fast enough. I tried
> tongue-switching on a chromatic but could not do it cleanly at tempo.
> So, I retuned the three blow C# reeds of an A diatonic up to D.  Now the
> A-D  pairs lie on adjacent blow reeds in 3 octaves.
> I also glued the draw reeds in the same chambers shut to absolutely
> eliminate leakage. Now I can easily warble the ADADA quickly and cleanly at
> tempo.  With reverb it sounds ethereal.  Then the steel guitar plays the
> "wah wah wah" response.
> <<
> 
> Sounds like fun, but since this is a warble on a perfect 4th, why wasn't it
> sufficient to play it on an appropriately keyed harp as a draw 1-2 warble
> or a blow 3-4 or 6-7 warble?  All of those are perfect 4th warbles with a
> constant breath direction.

My analysis wasn’t as informed as yours and those alternatives didn’t occur to me.  Your questions are very incisive. 

I don’t ordinarily play diatonics and my collection is severely limited.  However, I did have a set of Lee Oscar plates in A that I thought might be useful.  I considered moving the D reeds but found it much easier to tune up the C#s. 

My scheme has a slight advantage in that three AD blow pairs occur in octaves 3, 4, & 5.  I’m not sure that a low Bb harp is available that would sound A3 in hole-1 draw. 

Now I know that I can get a blow A6-D7 on a D harp in holes 9-10 that sounds like whistling.  
I think that repeating the riff in 4 octaves will make an interesting arrangement.

Thanks for your helpful questions and comments..  

Vern