Re: [Harp-L] Suzuki ProMaster Video Up (valved ProMaster inquiry)



Dear Mike
I play slide guitar and have had two MR350 vs and an XB-40 for about two years. In the words of Son House, if you don't keep that slide moving, it sounds like hell; i.e. good slide technique in the blues does not involve hitting clean notes, but sounding notes that vary in pitch in a pleasing way.


Of course, if you are talking about pedal steel, or Hawaiian style playing this is rather different.

Both the MR350v and the XB-40 can be used similarly to blues slide guitar and it isn't hard to do. There is the occasional valve buzz, but I hear that like fret buzz, part of the aesthetic. I find the MR350s easier to use this way. I am not particularly interested in playing in every key on a single diatonic harp, rather I like the notes in between the notes. Personally, if my primary goal was to hit accurately all 12 notes of the standard western scale in precise pitch on a free reed instrument then I would have learned the accordian or concertina (actually I tried this for a bit). I am also interested, probably too interested, in free improvisation, which means that I have tried not to train my ear too much to hear only the western tonal system.

Of course, the maestros of harp such as Brendan Power, Winslow Yerxa, Richard Hunter and Jason Ricci can BOTH hit any note that can be wrung out of a diatonic and bend/ overblow between the notes with very pleasing results.

To my ear electronic methods of producing glissando (as suggested by Richard Hunter) lack the complexity, response speed and subtlty of slide guitar and, although interesting, are not the same.

On 24 Jul 2008, at 00:56, Mike Fugazzi wrote:

Would this type of harp allow for more slide guitar like phrasing and playing? I am really interested in trying one, but don't know if I can go without the extra pitches I can get with over bends.

So for those on the list...is it possible to bend a valved harp to those notes???? Any more vavled ProMaster users out there? For the record I would love to try a Fabulous. I am excited for their release to the public!!!

Mike Fugazzi
Harmonica/Vocals
http://www.myspace.com/niterailband
http://www.myspace.com/mikefugazzi


"Music should be healing; music should uplift the soul; music should inspire. There is no better way of getting closer to God, of rising higher towards the spirit, of attaining spiritual perfection than music, if only it is rightly understood."
-Hazrat Inayat Khan


--- On Wed, 7/23/08, mfugazzi67 <mfugazzi67@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

From: mfugazzi67 <mfugazzi67@xxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [Harp-L] Suzuki ProMaster Video Up
To: mfugazzi67@xxxxxxxxx
Date: Wednesday, July 23, 2008, 5:48 PM

--- In harp-l-archives@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "Brendan Power"
<bren@...>
wrote:

A new video featuring the Suzuki valved diatonics (Promaster MR350-V
and
MR350-GV) is up:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHuiExkUH4E

These are the only commercial half-valved diatonics available. For
those
not familiar with them, the valving allows bending expression, vibrato
etc on the lower blow and upper draw notes (impossible on an unvalved
harp), in addition to the normal draw and blow bends. The video
demonstrates these features.

Brendan
WEB: http://www.brendan-power.com <http://www.brendan-power.com/>


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