[Harp-L] Re: Winslow's bending and stiff reeds experiment



Winslow - you just blew everything I thought I understood about bending into the weeds. I was taught that bending was a sympathetic interaction between the two reeds in a diatonic harp - a draw bend begins with the draw reed at its regular pitch, begins to involve the other (lower pitch reed) and then one or both begin to vibrate sympathetically, resulting in a range ofpitches that falls between the tywo reeds' natural frequency. This explains why a) the number of semitones difference between the reeds is responsible for the amount we (mortals, anyway) can bend (for example, C harp 3 hole draw = B, 3 blow = G - 5 semi-tones range. The bends include the 3 in the middle: Bb, A, Ab. On the other hand, 5 draw =F, 5 blow = E (difference of one semi-tone) - so can only bend 1/4 tone. It also explains why most of us can't bend very well on a chromatic - the "other" reed doesn't get involved. So this theory has always made sense to me - and still does.

But - upon reading your post, I immediately disassembled an A harp and tried both blow- and draw-bending the single reed, and discovered that I indeed could. SO now I'm wondering if there are 2 physically distinct phenomena here? I.e., the first is "2-reed-involved-bends" and the second is "lone reed bends"?

Can you shed any light?






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