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From: BluesGe~ol.com
Date: Fri, 3 Jul 1998 14:16:57 EDT
Subject: A Man's Blues Harp (was: Re: A man's harp)

In a message dated 6/22/98 9:09:16 AM, Samuel J. Gravina, sgravi~l.mit.edu
wrote:

>Barry B. Bean wrote:
>>There are times that
>>that lower octave is exactly the thing. Indeed, many players would
>>argue that the UPPER octave is the unnecessary one (hence the tenor
>>tunings of the CX-12, 270, and Hering 501/48).
>
>
>I have a tenor CX-12 and a normal 270. I really love that lower octave. I
>have only come across two songs in which I really wanted a note from that
>upper octave. One is imitating Bonfiglio doing "The Swan", the last note
>is a high G. The other is imitating Tommy Reily doing "somewhere over the
>rainbow".
>
>But there are tons of stuff I do that uses the lower octave. Most of the
>music I have and instructional play along stuff doesn't use the upper
>octave.
>
>The tenor C harp duplicates the male vocal range nicely. With my own voice
>I can sing all the tenor notes except the ones in the first and last hole.
>A nice symmetry.

I've never owned a tenor-tuned chro, so, I would be thankful if someone would
please check the accuracy of my post.

The tenor tuning would be great for blues, two, except that draw 12, no
trigger (remembering Douglas' "Ho Ho Silver" thread last year), is a B, and
the D above it is a very important note to complete the octave in D dorian
(3rd position). This note is probably at the upper limit of what a blues
player would likely need, but it is important, nonetheless. The note can be
hit by pushing the trigger in but that changes the whole draw chord to Eb, not
the best for including the D in grand chord playing in D. If, in fact, the
layout is as I describe, you could file the B up to a D and have a great blues
harp. If I'm wrong and it's already a D...

The low octave of the tenor and the 64 is very important to have. Other than
the cool sound of the octave, it's presence is useful for providing tongue
slap support for the lower notes in the octave above it.

- -Dave Therault