The AsiaBend is an all-draw x-reed harmonica that bends all the notes. It's become my first choice for exploring any kind of expressive melody - of which there are plenty in Irish music!
Here are two in a medley: "Wrap the Green Flag Round Me, Boys" and "The Foggy Dew", both iconic rebellion songs about the Easter Rising of 1916, whose centenary was celebrated this year. (If you don't want to read the song lyrics, just close your eyes and listen):
Last Edited by Brendan Power on Dec 23, 2016 5:08 AM
Great playing and i don't like to bring politics into the forum but Brendan needs to realize that to a lot of us the IRA were a terrorist organisation. I lost two nephews during the 1970's to a IRA bomb set off in a London street.They were 10-12 years old and completely innocent.The irony was that their mother was an Irish Catholic born in Dublin...she spent the rest of her life in a wheelchair...childless. Would we all accept some Islamic music dedicated to the ISIS fanatics .....just because it was played on a Harmonica. I like Irish music but when it is put up as celebrating bombing and killing innocent people it galls me.
@indigo and grahamonica: The intersection between music and belief systems (religion/politics) is interesting to discuss. I think we can do it in a way that won't break any forum rules or get anyone upset. Let's give it a try anyway :)
Music doesn't exist in a vacuum. I think we'd all agree that any song or instrumental from any genre worldwide reflects its culture and historical context. That's how we get styles: Indian music, Chinese music, Blues music, Pop music - and all their many complex subdivisions.
The two songs featured in this video were born of their cultural context and time: a powerful historical event, a seemingly failed uprising which resulted a few years later in the creation of the Irish republic after centuries of often brutal British rule.
Equating the Troubles in Northern Ireland in the 1970s with the 1916 Easter Rising and bringing mention of the IRA into it is not valid in my opinion, on several levels. At that time (100 years ago) ALL of Ireland was under British rule. Historically the IRA was only formed in 1917, a year later. Belfast 1970's is 50 years later, and a very different situation: a part of the island of Ireland still under British rule.
This is not to condone any IRA atrocities, and there were many. I just don't think they are relevant to these two tunes.
Secondly, even if one disagrees with the sentiments of a song, it can still have beauty on purely musical levels, like melody, rhythm, inventiveness etc. You ask:
"Would we all accept some Islamic music dedicated to the ISIS fanatics .....just because it was played on a Harmonica".
Personally I would say yes, as long as the melody was beautiful and the harmonica playing was good. I hope the two tunes in my video qualify on that basis. Just close your eyes and you can avoid reading any lyrics if you wish, but I think the music stands on its merits.
I listen to quite a bit of Islamic music, including the beautiful call to prayer sung by the Imams. I don't share their beliefs, but their singing is exquisite. That's enough for me! Here is an example if you care to listen. Just close your eyes and open your heart:
Last Edited by Brendan Power on Dec 23, 2016 6:56 AM
Well i thought that Brendan made a very reasonable and thoughtful reply to my post. But to say that anyone killed by the IRA 'deserved it'is drawing a very long bow.. ISIS could be said(if you read the history of the middle East) to have some legitimate grievances against the west. So logically anyone killed by them 'deserved it too?(in their minds it does) Terrorism is just that..if you agree with one you have to agree to them all otherwise surely it just means being a hypocrite.
Politics is, for the most part banned on the forum, but this falls into that 'but when that's what the music is about' caveat that we try to carve out here. I have taken the extremely rare move of removing a comment (put it in the spam bin for further review). Reever, your remark was well outside the forum creed. Reread the forum creed and try to take it to heart.
The rest of you, thanks for being civil, and thanks even more, for being open minded and willing to exchange ideas.
@nacoran: Thanks for your mature approach to the admin duties. We're (mostly) adults and naturally have different views, but there should be a space here for reasoned good-humoured discussion on issues that touch on our main topic.
Just to be clear, I'm certainly NOT an apologist for any kind of terrorism, whether it's from the IRA, the UDA, Daesh/ISIS, or state terrorism. And indigo, I did NOT anywhere say that "anyone killed by the IRA 'deserved it'" - not sure how you got that message from my post??
All I'm saying is that music should be judged on its own merits, aside from any role it plays in whatever belief system or political structure. A great melody and excellent playing are intrinsic qualities apart from where they derive or who the performer is.
If we were to dismiss all music with a religious or political function not in accord with our own beliefs as being in some way disqualified for listening or discussion, then it would cut out HUGE swathes of great music over the ages. Some might be fine with that, but not me.
And things change over time, it's not set in stone. Look at Blues music, a style to which most of us here are passionately devoted. Americans are justly proud of having created Blues and Jazz on their shores, but we forget that there was a very strong campaign against them by influential sections in US society when the new styles rose to popularity. We joke about Blues being 'The Devil's Music', but for some white fundamentalist Christians it was no joke at all! To them it was literally true, and they did their utmost to suppress it.
I think most here would agree that was a misguided approach: you can be a good Christian and still love Blues! That's because the musical value of great Blues songs and performances can be appreciated by all regardless of whether the listener approves of the lifestyles of the Blues artists or other side issues.
Same with political and religious music, of all stripes. Some of it is great, some of it is poor, regardless of where it comes from or what it is eulogising. National anthems are a case in point. Listen to the lyrics of any national anthem and there are often some pretty loaded sentiments in there that people of other nations would strongly contest, and even many in the country whose anthem it is! But most have great stirring melodies that can be enjoyed on a musical level quite aside from their political message.
Thievin Heathen said "Well, if there was going to be some Islamic music dedicated to the ISIS fanatics, the Asia Bend would be THE harp to play it on." A musical instrument is not a political object TH, it's a tool that can be used for many ends. I think the AsiaBend is one of the best harps I've created in my long career of exploring new designs/tunings. It allows a good draw bender to get unprecedented expression on ANY good tune, and even average ones.
Not sure which country you're from, but I'd be happy to demonstrate it would make a great job of your national anthem :)
Last Edited by Brendan Power on Dec 23, 2016 10:16 PM
Brendan, I think Indigo was referring to the Reever post I removed. That's one of the reasons I hate taking that step- it makes threads a bit disjointed, as well as hurting the free flow of ideas, but sometimes it's a necessary evil to keep a thread on topic. I'm all for discussions about ideas, but it's also easy to let a thread run from being about harmonica music to being about politics, to being about who can beat who up in a fight. :)
This thread has me thinking though... there is something, maybe it's a formal genre out there somewhere- Resistance Music? I think we are all drawn to stories about that time our ancestors through off the yoke of some great evil. Any song like that is going to be political by nature. Some of the politics will still be hot button stuff, and some may have faded into obscurity. I remember from music appreciation class (holy cow, freshman year in college, so 27 years ago?) that a lot of old nursery rhymes were coded political tracts. You would get your head chopped off if you insulted the queen, but there were ways around it. And of course there are songs by Native Americans about the atrocities of the U.S. Western expansion, about the American South (both from slaves and from Southerners who didn't want to give up their way of life), songs about Irish independence, songs about resisting the Nazis- one of the most powerful moments in all of cinema history, when the French sing their national anthem in Rick's cafe in Casablanca...
We are, as a group, probably mostly familiar with the English language ones. That covers things like 'When Johnny Comes Marching Home' to 'Green Fields of France' or 'Strange Fruit', 'Hard Time Killing Floor Blues' or 'Waltzing Matilda' (I actually prefer 'And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda' to Waltzing Matilda!).
It's tough to discuss them on a forum without offending someone, but there is a great deal of depth to the subject.
I might get one of these harps they sound interesting. Saw the video on your site Brendan where you said it was all draw notes. You mean there's literally no blow notes on the harp? Maybe i picked it up wrong. Surely you'd run out of breath with all just drawing? A lot of times the blow notes let you gain your breath back.
@ nacoran: Interesting examples! @ indigo: apologies, I didn't realise your comments were for a different (deleted) post.
@Bike&Harp: yes, the AsiaBend is all draw. You quickly get used to it. It's the mirror image of most wind instruments, which are all-blow. Think of the sax, trumpet, recorder, flute, whistle, ney, bombarde, trombone, clarinet, oboe...
Players of those instruments take quick breaths in between phrases to replenish their air. No one asks them if they can't balance their breath.
The AsiaBend is the same in principle but opposite in operation. On the AsiaBend you expel air with your stomach muscles in between phrases. It only takes a split second, and you're good to draw and bend once again.
I could have made the AsiaBend all-blow like the sax/flute etc, but after trying both approaches I found that draw bends are easier to control than blow bends in the lower octaves. I tested the same bends with all-blow and all-draw tunings, and all-draw won out easily in terms of tone and pitch control.
It's just a mental switch. Once it's flicked into all-draw mode you relax and start extracting the soul from those juicy draw bends on every note, slide-in or slide-out. It gives you at least two ways of playing every note: as a normal draw note or an easy blues-harp-style draw bend.
Last Edited by Brendan Power on Dec 25, 2016 2:23 PM
If I remember correctly from a music philosophy class I took about 40 years ago, there are three general approaches.
Referentialism deems the value of music on the basis of what it refers to. If it is about something good and noble, the music has worth. If it is associated with evil, then it is bad music. This can relate to politics, religion, morality, history, etc.
Expressionism is the perspective that if music provides a moving experience and speaks effectively to the listener's emotions, then the music has value.
Formalism is the view that it is the mechanics of music that are most important, and the architecture of form, texture, harmonic structure, etc. are the elements that make a musical work significant.
In practice, any one system in isolation can lead to some odd conclusions, but I suspect that most of us here tend toward being expressionists. We enjoy the harp primarily due to the deep emotional connection we feel through playing and listening to its music.
@nacoran: you raise an interesting point about how point of view determines judgements. To a large extent it's all relative.
I did a Masters degree in religious studies in NZ in the late 1970s, and my thesis was on the Taoist philosopher Chuang Tzu. 2-3000 BC the Taoists were asking all sorts of difficult questions that Western thought would not get around to until Einstein. Like, what do the terms big/small, hot/cold, good/bad, even real/unreal actually mean?
To a caterpillar a human is big, but to a mountain a human is small. Is a human big or small? Once Chuang Tzu dreamt he was a butterfly and, when he awoke, genuinely could not decide if he was a man who'd been dreaming he was a butterfly, or a butterfly now dreaming it was a man. Pretty radical thinking that Western thought only caught up with in the 20th Century.
It's a bit similar with politics: one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. Most if us idolise Mandela as a fighter for a just cause, but to the Apartheid regime in South Africa he was a terrorist. The American revolutionaries who fought to establish the United States as an independent country are revered by subsequent generations in the USA, but to the British at the time George Washington and his fellow republicans were dangerous subversives, to be condemned and crushed. How people judge other revolutionary leaders like Ho Chi Minh, Mao Tse Tung, Che Guevara, Franco etc depends a lot on who you are, and where and when you live.
It's all relative in political terms, but what doesn't change is musical quality. A great tune and a great recorded performance hold their power despite changing times. Blind Lemon Jefferson, Skip James, Robert Johnson, Sonny Boy Williamson II, Little Walter - their tracks have a huge power to move the hearts of countless future generations through sheer intrinsic aesthetic beauty.
I can easily imagine some kid 500 years from now hearing 'Juke' or 'Help Me' for the first time and being as gobsmacked as I was as a student in New Zealand back in 1976. Great music has that intrinsic essence that transcends religion, politics and ideology. Even if it is used by such subjective ephemeral belief systems for their own ends for a brief period, the indelible quality of a great song and a great performance will outlast them all.
Last Edited by Brendan Power on Dec 25, 2016 2:26 PM
@Fishlips: thanks for those useful music-appreciation categories: Referentialism, Expressionism and Formalism. They do indeed sum up the field pretty well!
@Bike&Harp: yes, only available in C at present. However the one used on the track in this thread is in G, and I've made myself a few in other keys as well.
Like any harmonica, the AsiaBend can be tuned in an infinite number of ways. After studying how other all-bending instruments are played (for example the dobro in Old Time/Bluegrass/Country music) I adopted an all-draw version of Solo tuning as the best to obtain similar classic bends and phrases on the harmonica.Prior to that I used a pentatonic tuning which is very expressive, but harder to play a wide range of music on.
The AsiaBend is essentially a modal harmonica and is played in 'positions' like the blues harp. In the medley above the opening tune is in 1st Position and the second in 3rd Position. Where it differs from the normal harp (aside from the all-draw playing) is in the fact that all positions are equally expressive. That's because all notes in every mode/position bends at least to the next note down in the scale.
You can play chromatically by bending less than the full bend, or using overblows. I hadn't considered that a harmonica with no blow notes would have overblows - so that was a serendipitous discovery! But it is entirely logical, as the blow reeds are set to an ideal zero-gap for getting overblows. If you're interested you can hear them here:
As its name suggests, part of the drive to create the AsiaBend came from trying to play Chinese, Indian and Middle Eastern music with an authentic sound and feeling. It was a total revelation listening closely to the master musicians in Asian styles and studying the intricate and incredibly soulful way they use bends on every note, shallow or deep. Many of the lead instruments they play aim to model the human voice, which gives them a sound that is super expressive, beautiful and mesmerising.
Conventional harmonicas just can't get that expression on all the notes. The sadly discontinued XB-40 could, but its Richter tuning is not optimal for playing like the Erhu in Chinese music, the Veena in Indian music, or the Dobro in Country music.
I'm currently working on a smaller version of an XB-40 type of harp (blow/draw all-bending) which shows promise. If I can iron out the last remaining wrinkles I hope to have it available before too long.
Last Edited by Brendan Power on Dec 26, 2016 6:11 AM
That video in your last post Brendan; what key is that harp? I don't know if i'd like it in C might be a bit too high. That one sounds like an A or something. It sounds lower in pitch.
It's a standard key C AsiaBend, but played in the Phrygian Mode. In harp language that is 5th Position, based on E.
Kuroda Bushi is a beautiful tune I learned from hearing it on Shakuhachi. Sounds good on a C 10-hole harp too :)
Last Edited by Brendan Power on Dec 27, 2016 12:45 AM
Thanks Brendan. Well in that case, listening to those sounds, i think i'll pick one up. Maybe order in the next week or so. How long does delivery take?
Relativism. I understand the argument. Regardless of the validity of the ultimate cause, however, there are behaviors and ideas that simply are wrong. Even music, elegant or sweet or soulful or unforgettable as it might be, can be diminished in their service.I don't know what music might have been created and sung in praise of Mao, but whatever intrinsic beauty it has does nothing for the millions who died subject to his ideas. There are absolutes. I don't presume to be the arbiter, but the line is there somewhere.
"If you have any more queries like this, better to email: enquiries@brendan-power.com"
I don't know i might not buy it on second thoughts. I can't get my head round a harp that you don't blow into. Just doesn't sound right and i can't imagine it would feel right either. I think it might take too long to get used to.
I played one briefly at SPAH, was impressed but didn't buy. I think it is a great instrument if you have the time to invest in learning what it can do. Listen to Brendan, he's not superhuman, he has just invested the time to exploit the possibilities--of course, he also took the time to invent it!
I bought one of the Asiabend's. I never got a confirmation email or anything to tell me the order had been received or anything. I sent you an email concerning it Brendan.
Sorry for the delay, I just saw your message today, Bike&Harp. You should have got an automated email immediately after ordering, but I've asked my business partner to check and re-send.
Happy new year Brendan. Thanks for the post. No problem at all i was just wondering if the order had went through ok. I got an email from someone, after i left a message on your site, saying all was cool and in order. Looking forward to playing this harp! It sounds good.
Brendan: Got my AsiaBend today. This harp is too cool! Will take a bit of getting used to with the different set up but i can see me playing this harp a lot an awful lot. I particularly like combining overblows with using the slide. A whole world of possibilities there.
How do you come up with all these great ideas for new harp designs? You're a magician!
I veered off this thread during the uprising and left with the impression that the idea of an all draw instrument was mad. I'm happy to see that the discussion veered back on course.
It didn't consciously dawn on me until today, while I was noodling on flute, that I was playing a one way instrument. I see it's already been covered but as far as I know the harp is the only two way note making instrument (I did not research this). But you have to monitor wind status no matter what vocal instrument you play.
So, the idea is not as crazy as I thought, just innovative. Love the sound and the possibilities.
Hi Bike&Harp: After all that back and forth I'm relieved you like your AsiaBend :)
It's different, but once you get the hang of it becomes quite addictive. Any old melody, no matter how simple, sounds fresh played in this new way. Interesting you're using the overblows too. Have fun!
In answer to how it came about: It's an x-reed type of harp, in the same category as the XB-40 but in this case all-draw. I was one of the co-inventors of this type back in the 1980s, and have been exploring them ever since. I found they can be made in a wide number of ways.
The all-draw slider version is just one of those x-reed types that I thought of along the path, but it really stuck with me as one of my favourites, and one I found myself returning to over and over.
It's a niche harmonica but the people who like it REALLY like it. Glad you do too :)
@JustFuya: yes, it's not as crazy as it seems if you consider most wind instruments are all-blow. By contrast we harp players mostly get our soul from the suck notes, so the AsiaBend is a logical extension of that: our familiar draw bending on steroids!
Brendan: Yep i'm playing the overblows and combining them with the slider and just experimenting. You get the overblow on one of the notes with the slider out or in and then move the slider and you get the OB of the other note if your embouchure is ok.
Interesting as well that i can get most of these OB's straight out the box. I haven't adjusted anything in the harp yet and i could get the OB's around the middle of the harp with very little effort. I can't get them on the first 3 holes but i've never played those OB's on a regular harp either. Are there any tweaks you can make to OB better as regards the gapping and stuff. As i say i haven't touched the insides of the instrument yet and quite frankly i don't really need to. But i'm a tinkerer as well who always tries to get things even better.
I would recommend this harp to everyone and the case is beautiful too that you get it in. Just a great instrument.
Embossing is always a good idea, and you could try a very thin smear of some slider oil or Vaseline for extra airtightness on the slide.
On my CX-12 prototypes of the AsiaBend I added a slide hook, to enable slide operation with the thumb. This allows me to keep full cupping while holding the slide in. But a slide hook is not so easy to add to the standard metal button types. I've tried but find eventually the button shifts and I have to ditch the hook.
A couple of questions Brendan. I notice on the net and on your site the Asia is shown with metallic chrome plates mine has the black plates. Do you not do the chrome cover plates any more? Second question is about i notice my lips and mouth feeling dry with the new harp. I take it it's because of just sucking air in all the time as opposed to blowing as well that tends to cause more dryness? Maybe it's just a matter of getting used to it. It's a really cool harp.
We moved to the black covers for the second batch of the AsiaBend because I like the looks, and prefer traditional tabbed covers (easier to assemble/disassemble).
I haven't found my mouth going dry, not sre why that's happening. One way around it is to put a thin smear of Vaseline on your lips - try that.
Cheers Brendan it's a cool inspiring instrument and makes you come up with a lot of new ideas. I'm learning that Japanese tune 'Kuroda Bushi' you play in one of your videos demonstrating the Asia.
