A Short Guide to the Octave-tuned Harps (Long) HarpL Archives

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From: t.e.d~tt.net
Date: Wed, 26 Apr 2000 19:30:53 +0000
Subject: A Short Guide to the Octave-tuned Harps (Long)

In some of my previous postings I had mentioned Octave
harmonicas. Once again this resulted in a large stack of
emails with questions regarding these. Rather than
answering each of them individually (it’s becoming time
consuming), I thought to post this. I hope it is not
overly long or repetitive.

While the double-reed harmonicas have attained a place
in the hearts of many players in other parts of the
world, relatively few Western European and North
American players have embraced these instruments.
Perhaps the reason for this is that we don’t encounter
or hear them often. Another reason may be that they are
seldom mentioned, and if at all in superficial detail.
Many players have the incorrect idea that the uses of
these harps are limited to a few specialized musical
styles.

I am a double-reed aficionado. My first harp was an
octave tuned model, and I now spend the majority of my
playing and tinkering time with these. Much of what I
have learned about them is based on lessons I received
while on an extended business trip to Brazil in the
1970's. Because of the short time frame these lessons
had to be compressed into just a few months, but they
provided a solid basis from which to develop the
techniques. Similarly, this outline is meant to convey
these basic techniques to the reader. It is not meant
to teach you how to play the harmonica, I assume you
already know. As always, proficiency comes with practice
and development of personal adaptations.

A few words about playing style. Most of these harps are
large and have a lot of holes to cover. Everything
requires greater movement: head, mouth, tongue, hands,
harp. Be aggressive in developing this. The double-reeds
have smaller holes (most of them, but some have much
wider holes) and thinner walls, but thicker mouth pieces
and greater blow-blow or draw-draw hole offsets. This
requires some relearning, but most players adapt
quickly. The hardest part may be setting aside
preconceived ideas about the applications of the
instrument to your repertoire.

And some more few words covering harp selection.
Nothing disrupts the learning process more than a poor
instrument. Lack of quality, poor playability, and
displeasing sounds all distract from the task at hand. A
good Octave harp can be had for little more than the
price of a quality 10-hole blues harp, so invest in one!
There are two mouth piece styles for the double-reed,
straight and curved. For most players the latter has
better ergonomics. Octaves come in any number of holes
per row, but of the commonly available ones, try to get
a 24-hole one for your first Octave. They also come in
single sided, double sided (flip them over and you get a
different key), and Carambolas or Wheels (Several harps
mounted so you can rotate between them rapidly). For a
first Octave I would recommend a single sided model. My
personal favorite is the Hering Seductora, although
these are difficult to come by.

So let’s start.

The Octaves have separate reed chambers for the upper
and lower reed plates. The de-facto standard is to have
the lower pitched reeds on the upper plate. In the
natural playing mode both reeds are sounded equally,
producing the typical “Octave” sound. However, you can
also play the two reeds unequal, thus giving more
emphasis to one note than the other. This is called
BLENDING. Carried to the extreme, you can sound only a
single note on either plate. I call this SOLA.

The basic technique for accomplishing this is to use
pucker playing. Your lips need to be relaxed, but try to
maintain an air seal (This is where the curved
mouthpiece helps). Hold the harp in a horizontal
position. Sound a note. While doing this, tilt the harp
up (raise the back) and let your lower lip progressively
cover more and more of the lower hole. This produces
a “low blend” favoring the lower octave. When your lip
completely covers the lower hole only the lower octave
note sounds, thus we have a low sola.

Now reverse the direction of the tilt and when passing
through the horizontal position, start to let your upper
lip gradually cover the upper hole. This produces
the “high blend” favoring the upper octave. When the
upper lip completely covers the upper hole, only the
high octave sounds, thus we have the high sola.

This is the first, and main, part to get down pat. With
most new Octave players there usually is a mental light
that goes on at this point. “Wait a minute! When I play
sola, isn’t that like playing a straight diatonic? With
a four octave range? And I can do bends?” All at once
they begin to understand the wider view of the Octave
horizon. Watching the revelation is fun.

Once you can hit blends and solas with some consistency,
you can start to apply some more techniques. Most of
these are the same as those you use on straight
diatonics. Use tongue blocking as a subset of the pucker
embouchure. The depth of bends is less than on a
straight diatonic, and also depends on the degree of
blending. You can vary the pitch by altering the shape
and size of the mouth cavity and tongue position. You
can vary the timbre by tilting the head, bending the
torso, moving the shoulders. Explore all of these, and
learn to associate them with the sounds produced.

One of the more difficult things to learn is to
purposely stop and start both reeds together or
separately. Do make sure the reeds are set up properly.

Some more techniques.

Sound a low sola. Maintain the position of your upper
lip, but slide your lower lip to the next hole. Sound a
high sola. Maintain the position of the lower lip, and
slide the upper lip. Try the same playing blends.

With large traverses across the harp, move both your
head and the harp to diminish the time it takes to do
this.

Notice the difference in timbre when playing the harp
farther into the mouth or farther out. Also make use of
this to alter the sound of chords by holding the harp at
a horizontal angle (Holding the right or left side out
farther away from the face and the opposite side in
closer to the face). A very advanced technique is to
angle the harp in a vertical side-to-side plane and
using tongue blocking to select one high and one low
hole. These are called DIAGONALS. (I told you there was
lots of movement with Octaves!)

Every beginning player heard this a zillion times:
Breath, don’t blow! Well, there is a playing style that
violates this advice. It produces a tone with a distinct
raspy edge. To use this technique, lightly touch your
lips to the covers and blow. Quite a bit of air should
be escaping over the covers. Experiment with changing
your pucker and lip position to get the desired effect.
To a lesser extent the same can be done with the draw
holes (suck holes?). If you use a microphone you’ll need
a wind screen or wind sock.

If you have a single sided Octave, cupping techniques
can be the same as those used with straight diatonics.
Learn to use your middle fingers and pointer fingers to
selectively block the lower and upper rear
(respectively) cover openings. With some double sided
Octaves you can use the fingers to block the center
cover openings. With the Carambolas this gets difficult.

This covers the basics. Just keep practicing and
exploring.

A final word to the tinkers in the crowd. Octaves make
great starting points: so many holes – so many reeds!
Besides the obvious retuning possibilities, create mini
chord harps and bass harps. All blow, all draw, or
straight 24-hole diatonics; just rotate the reeds.

Ted