All the talk a little while ago about valved diatonic harps got me curious.So i went through the archives to find out what they were and where they went.
But i soon found that it would take some work to make them right or buy them somewhere, because like most harp players, i just can't wait.
So i decided to do the next best thing. I took the covers off my Golden melodies C-harp and put scotch tape over the reed holes on top of the top reed plate.Then I put the covers back on.
I now had a harp with permanently closed blow valves.Thus only draw notes would sound.
The first thing I noticed was the tone.Kinda like a cat in a plastic bag. In all fairness, the tone did improve as I played. Kinda like a harp player in a trunk. And, boy did reeds bend easy! After playing around for about 20 minutes, bending the 1 2 5 7 8 9 draws, I tried some bending on my blues harp C-harp. THe 2 draw bend (which I always had trouble with) bent without even straining myself. I could even get the 1 5 7 draw bends to change pitch.
I think I'll keep this harp "taped up" for a while to work on my bending subtlties. In a few weeks I may tape the inside of my draw reed plate, and see what I can do with blow notes.
CONCLUSION: All those of you knocking the whole valved diatonic harp thing, might be missing out on a valuable learning tool!
NELSON - ---------------------------------- Lend me your ears, but keep your lip - ----------------------------------
