I need help with my valved bend

["Stephen Shaw" <moorcot@xxxxxxx>]

I am sitting here with a SP20 low D harp in my hand.  I use it to play 
tunes, mostly fast, in traditional Irish music.  I long ago adopted the 
concept of the" Paddy Richter" tuning which puts back the missing 6th note 
of the scale in the lowest octave, and after reading Iron Man's info on 
valved bends I thought I'd try to fix the other main hassle, namely to make 
it possible to get the C natural in the middle octave.  I've discounted 
overblowing for this note because I can't cope with the narrow gapping 
required (that's my limitation, not a criticism of overblowing!) in very 
fast tunes.

So I put a valve on the 7 blow, and now I can bend 7 draw to get C natural.  
Trouble is, it doesn't sound very good, not at all like my other bends (not 
that they always sound that great...).  At the correct pitch I sound kind of 
muffled, or strangulated.

I could be wrong, but I don't think it's the valve (I used a recycled one 
from an old chromatic, cut to size).  I suspect I need to be told something 
about technique.  Any advice?

All the best

Steve Shaw



Want more than the blues?  Try Irish!
http://mysite.freeserve.com/trad_irish_harmonica

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