[Harp-L] melody maker



Dave wrote:
"I'm not trying to be a jerk but Lee Oskar is after all one of us. Since "Melody Maker" is a trademarked name it's a shame for people to violate it"


Unless you have heard this from Lee himself, I'd guess otherwise. The trademark is there so that it is harder for anyone else to sell the tuning rather than Lee Oskar. They'd have to come up with a new name and then market it with all the ensuing confusion. But, the more people use the tuning (either by LO or others) and the more times people mention "Melody Maker" the more likely it is for people to become interested, and find the easiest available product--LO's product.

Indeed, even if Lee does dislike the generic usage of the name, I think he would be mistaken. Just as Jeep fought to keep all "SUVs" from being called simply "jeeps", LO could do the same. But, now Jeep is just one of many manufacturers, whereas before it was the name of the entire market--I know which I would prefer. Letting, or even encouraging people to move a brand name from a specific to a generic actually seems to me to be quite a good idea. There was (and perhaps still is) a time where companies and consultants saw this as a major negative, and thus big campaigns were undertaken by both Jeep and Band-Aid, to name two, to fight the common, all-encompassing usage. It succeeded, but both these companies no longer dominate the market--that seems not to be a coincidence.

Now, alternate harmonica tunings are about as profitable as selling canned air, so it really doesn't matter that much. AFAIC, Lee doesn't make harmonicas in alternate tunings because of any market demand, but rather as a labor of love. In that case, I doubt he'd mind people using the name he came up with to describe the tuning he developed and which he is the only one to regularly manufacture.

As for Melody Maker being harder to get a handle on--I agree entirely. Many tunings are very intuitive, but MM is not like that for me. It's odd, because it is essentially just a combination of two tunings I find quite easy to use (Country and Paddy), but still, the combination throws me off. I doubt that would be the case had I first learned on an MM, but then, the same could be said of spiral tunings (strange, and hard to figure, but if you'd learned that first, I'm sure it would seem natural and the more linear tunings odd). However, fjm had a great point--this tuning really seems to work best when you have a distinct song and melody to play. The more you do that, the more it really does start to make sense.

Mind you, I'd still tend to plat either Paddy or Country tuning first and only go to MM after those aren't satisfying for what I want. But, again, if I had started on MM, I'm sure that would be different.




()() JR "Bulldogge" Ross () () & Snuffy, too:) `----'







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