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From: Bobbie Giordano
Date: Mon, 14 Oct 1996 18:16:49 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: What's Right and Who's Left?

On 14 Oct 1996, Mattias Frisk responded to BBBean's mention of Bobby Rush
holding his harps upside down when playing them:

> Thanks a lot for that info. Till now I thought I was the only harp player in
> the world holding the harp upside down...
>
> Any more upsidedownharpers out there??? Don't be afraid - just come out...

Maybe I was just waiting for such a reminder, but along about some short
era ago, I decided to poll Harp-Lers for right or left handedness, and
whether or not it affected the way they held their harmonicas. Numerous
responses were received, and I promised to post the results, once I was
able to compile them into some sort of orderly fashion. Then, somehow, I
let it slip by, got involved with other things, designing coverplates, and
what have you, and I never did publish the results.

Sooo...and I've been thinking about this, because a considerable number of
new harpsters have come aboard H-L since then...I suppose that, before I
post the first survey results, I could pick up where I left off and reopen
the questionaire. I found from the replies I got to my query that there
were several aspects players identified with their handedness regarding
their styles of holding and playing harp, so I tried to simplify [for my
own selfish sake, thank you] by eventually asking just these few questions:

(1) Do you consider yourself lefthanded or righthanded?
(2) Do you hold the harmonica with the numbers facing up on the top or
below on the bottom?
(3) With which hand do you primarily hold the harmonica, left or right?
(4) Which hand do you use to fan the harmonica for effects, "wah-wah",
etc.?
(5) If you use a mic, with which hand do you hold it to the harp?

For those who already wrote me last time [Yeow! It was a year ago!] I do
not need you to resend your answers, as I still have them, and I will send
a separate note to you all in case you've forgotten whether you responded
or not, just to let you know I have your answers and to save myself some
aggravation. :) Of course, if you have changed anything since then in
your playing style, please feel free to update me.

For a bit of edification and maybe humor as well, here's my initial post
regarding this subject. [Wow...longwinded as usual, eh? Just be glad I
hadn't learned about Helmholz bottles, resonance theories, air pressure
variants, Bernoulli and Coriolis effects, etc., etc., before that fourth
paragraph! Mercy!!!]

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Date: Tue, 31 Oct 1995 16:01:25 -0500 (EST)
From: Bobbie Giordano
To: Harp~arply.com
Subject: What's Right and Who's Left?

Something I meant to comment on last week...

On Tue, 24 Oct 1995 marc~hoops.manukau.ac.nz wrote:
> > ...I let him use an old Harp of mine. I showed him how I hold it but
> > for some reason it still did not look right. I then remembered that he
> > was left handed. I was wondering if this is a problem...
> >
> > Jim
>
> As a left handed player with little contact with other harpers Jims
> post raised an innteresting point. Do I play left or right handed. I
> play with the numbers on top. This seemed logical to me. My left hand
> holds the harp and my right hand cups and waves around. :-) Is this
> normal for a lefty? If so why should my hand vibrato be any different?
>
> Marcus

As much as I'd like to claim there's a difference, I'm inclined to say
there is no left- or right-handed style, only preferences, sometimes based
on no more than initial learning experiences. I'm a southpaw, too, but
do many things righthanded. What little guitar I play, I learned right-
handed, but swing a tennis racket, golf club, throw a ball, etc. with my
left, and I draw and write lefthanded [although I can write - badly - with
my right hand.] But I'm convinced that lefties do lots more things ambi-
dextrously that righties because we grew up in a righthand-dominated society
and were compelled to adjust to cope. [I remember still learning to use a
10-key adding machine in 9/10th grade, and how frustrated I was because we
were expected to use our right hands! But I guess it evened out, because I
could also keep a pencil in my writing hand at the ready, while my righty
friends had to stop one thing to do the other. heh-heh-heh! >;) ]

When I began learning to play harp, I automatically went about it with the
numbers up and notes ascending left to right, because that's how they go
on a piano as you sit at one. As for using my left to hold the harp and
my right for effects, I guess I just lucked out guessing, because I didn't
have anyone to use as a guide for how do these things...just experimented
with positions trying to do what gave the sound I wanted with the most
comfortable hand position. I do use my left hand for effects sometimes,
because there is a difference in the "wah" sound, whatever, than with the
right [more free to move] hand. And I have sometimes wished I COULD use
my left instead, because there's better communication between my brain and
my left hand than my right. But I'm too far gone now to change, I guess.

I was after tone early on before I even knew much of anything about how the
harp is arranged notewise, which would still be obvious today if someone
asked me about particular scales, notes, etc. on the harp. Although, I'm
finally gaining that knowledge and understanding, too, thanks primarily to
Harp-L. But, typical for a lefty, I'm pretty much an intuitional player.

To achieve the best sound that seemed to be affected by the hand positions,
I kept coming back to the one I described above, and all I can figure is
that this configuration places a larger closed cavity [formed by the hands]
over the lowest notes, gradually becoming smaller toward the higher notes.
Also, the opening end of this hand arrangement is more over the higher notes,
which makes sense to me in light of a past list discussion I recall about
how the hands open more for enhanced resonance of higher notes and are more
closed with a smaller opening between hands for lower notes. This appears
to be accurate to me, as the lower frequencies are decidedly more resonant
with the more closed hand position and larger cavity. It's very evident as
the higher notes are played and one can hear the growing emphasis on the
higher harmonics as the hands are slowly opened or even flattened more
against each other, reducing the cavity size.

And going back to the numbers above the holes on a harmonica, I've wondered
why it's even done. If anything is imprinted there, wouldn't the letters
of the notes played in each hole be more useful? I can always count the
holes, but often take longer trying to figure out what notes will sound or
what key I'm in. I suppose beginning harpers could be helped by imprinting
like this, but this seems another characteristic that could be discarded if
harmonica is to be considered a "serious" instrument by musicians. What
other instruments have such markings on their valves, keys, buttons, etc.?

But, to return to "important" matters, I've noticed a number of lefties in
the harp community, and even theorize that harpers of the more expressive,
freeform styles like Blues have more than their share of lefties among them,
being drawn to the more right-brained activity of such styles. Anyone who's
willing to divulge their handedness proclivities might drop me an email for
my informal survey of "what's right and who's left." Just curious...surely,
a lefty trait!

Later Harpers...
and Harpy Halloween! =8^O

____________ |~
#[[ BOBBIE ]]# |~ I LEFT my HARP in Tallahassee..~ |
~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~ ~
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