Re: [Harp-L] The Outstanding Musical Value of Alternate Tunings



Tim, I don't mean to offend you but I thought your playing on the richter tuned harps was much better than the altered tuned ones. In this case your sound was more even and your playing was MUCH more fluid then when you played the altered tuned harps.  There were a few times I wondered to myself why you chose to played the altered harps over the regular ones. I assume at the time you were experiment and forcing yourself out of the box.  

You've got a remarkable sound and incredible dexterity on the regular harp. I love it.


>-----Original Message-----
>From: Tim Moyer [mailto:wmharps@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
>Sent: Thursday, August 24, 2006 07:06 AM
>To: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
>Subject: [Harp-L] The Outstanding Musical Value of Alternate Tunings 
>
>Richard Hunter wrote:
>> If I next read a discussion from someone on this list of the 
>> outstanding musical value of using multiple full sets of alternate 
>> tuned diatonics, including Dorian and Natural Minor, Country 
>> Tuned, Melody Maker, Paddy Richter, Paddy Richter Minor, and 
>> others, well, I'll just beam all day long.
>
>Not that I'm trying just to make Richard's day, but my regular "gig 
>set" includes a full set (12 keys plus loF and hiG) of Paddy Richter 
>tuned and a full set (12 keys) of Melody Maker tuned diatonics.  I 
>don't carry any "standard" tuned harps.  
>
>The band I play with does a lot of jazz standards and a lot 
>of "bluesy" jazz numbers, and this is what works for me.  I used to 
>carry a few natural minor tuned harps, but have gradually migrated 
>all that material over to Melody Makers in 5th (or 4th, depending on 
>how you look at it) position.  
>
>I prefer the Paddy Richter tuning for most things in 1st through 4th 
>positions, since the removal of the enharmonic 2nd position tonic 
>provides, without a bend: 1) 6th in the C scale, 2) 2nd in the G 
>scale, 3) 5th in the D scale, and, 4) lower octave tonic in the A 
>scale, which is great for 4th position minor.  Not using many (any?) 
>chords in my playing, I find the biggest challenge to be the loss of 
>the 3 draw bend down three semitones, which I have to do with a 2 
>hole overblow.  
>
>For many major scale tunes I like the Melody Maker tuning, since it 
>has the major 7th in second position without an overblow.  I don't 
>mind the overblow on other tunings for some songs, but when the 
>melody turns on the major 7th, as many things do (Georgia, When I 
>Fall in Love), I like having it there naturally.  Having now moved 
>much of the minor stuff to 5th on the Melody Maker broadens the use 
>of that tuning for me.  
>
>In the alternate tunings seminar I had a chance to jam with Jimi 
>Lee, who played an interesting tune that had the chorus in F minor, 
>and moved to the relative major, Ab, for the bridge.  Jimi played a 
>Fmin Lee Oskar natural minor (root note on the Bb), and I played an 
>Ab Melody Maker (root note on the Db), and it was pretty simple to 
>move between the minor and major changes, since the notes are all 
>there.  
>
>-tim
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