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From: "David Fairweather"
Date: Wed, 15 Sep 1999 14:36:06 -0700
Subject: Alternate Tunings

Terry wrote:

My question to you all who have been this way before: How do you know when
enough is enough? How many different patterns and tunings can one remember
and are there tricks to developing that memory? Some of this may go back to
the thread of "Do you know where you are when you are playing?" discussion
but any help will be appreciated.

- -------------------------------------

I find that certain positions and certain alternate tunings fit certain
songs. For example, I recently decided to learn the tune "Never Can Say
Goodbye". So I plugged the chords into Band-In-A-Box and then started
fooling around on a standard Richter-tuned diatonic. First I tried it in
cross-position, and didn't like how it layed, then I tried 1st position and
still wasn't satisfied, then I tried 12th position and found that with just
one overblow and some high-end blow bends (and maybe one overdraw if I
choose and I'm feeling confident), it just "felt right". From that point
on, I'm not thinking "I'm in 12th position and I need to rely on 12th
position patterns", I'm just playing a Richter diatonic.

Now at some point I may decide that I really don't like the sound of that
single overblow -- its not that I can't make the overblow, but I may not be
completely happy with its timbre and the place that timbre falls into the
melody. At that point I'll turn to an alternate tuning, maybe the
Temptation harp or the Spanish Spiral. I really can't say there are any
"tricks" to the switch. If the song feels right on the harp my brain won't
have any trouble adjusting. If its too much work, I'll try a different
position or a different harp until it lays easier.