DaDoom
5 posts
Jan 05, 2009
6:19 AM
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Hi folks
I just bought a valved Suzuki Promaster Diatonic harp. I must say it's really a top notch instrument. Being able to bend blow notes on the lower holes is really cool. I figured out by now that you can't overblow on these harps but I'm still having trouble finding the equivalent notes on the harp. Also I'm still not able to bend any draw notes on the upper register does anyone know if this requires a special technique? Or are they supposed to bend like the lower holes?
Also the high draw notes are quite sticky to play. Any idea if on valved harps the reeds should be loosened up a bit ("massaged" as Adam would say) like on normal diatonics ?
I haven't found much information on valved harps so far so all hints are welcome.
Cheers
DaDoom
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MrVerylongusername
85 posts
Jan 05, 2009
6:42 AM
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Try here:
http://www.angelfire.com/music/HarpOn/chrom.html
scroll down, there's a section on valved diatonics
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TylerLannan
41 posts
Jan 05, 2009
9:14 AM
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I've never personally played a valved harp but I think they only valve holes 1 - 6. That means the upper register should be normal and you should be able to use the regular overdraw technique to achieve missing notes.
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*you can only keep what you have by giving it away*
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DaDoom
6 posts
Jan 05, 2009
10:54 AM
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At least on the MR350-V all holes are valved. The valves are on the draw reeds from holes 1-6 and on the blow reeds from holes 7-10. Overbends and overdraws are definitely not achievable. On the other hand you can do blowbends on the holes 1-6 and draw bends on 7-10. Blow bends all work fine (almost same technique as blow bends on normal diatonics). I can slightly bend the 7 draw by now. Higher than that it seems damn hard to get. Seems like it takes a lot of practice to fully control those additional bends.
Valved or not I definitely like this harp. It's my first aluminium comb and it's really great to play.
I love the sound of the harp. And if you hear what guys like Brendan Power can do with it it's just amazing (especially the irish tunes).
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gene
99 posts
Jan 05, 2009
12:55 PM
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I ordered another Promaster a while back and they sent me a valved Promaster by mistake. I loved it and completed my set with valved. After a while I realized that may have been a mistake.
Those extra bends do not really give you very many new notes, and the valves sometimes rattle. One of these days I'll probably pull the valves off. I haven't yet because it's just kinda neat to have them. Also I'm just kinda lazy about doing that. I can't do overblows or overdraws, anyway, so what to heck.
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DaDoom
8 posts
Jan 05, 2009
1:53 PM
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@gene
It's my first valved harp so I consider this an experiment. As far as I can see from the layout depicted here: http://www.angelfire.com/music/HarpOn/chrom.html (thx MrVerylongusername) you get as many additional notes on a valved diatonic as on a regular one. You just don't get the same notes.
On regular diatonics and with some minor reed adjustments I can overblow holes 4 - 6. I never managed to produce any overdraws and bending overblows is reserved to Jason Ricci I guess. So apart from regular bending (which works perfectly on a valved diatonic as well) there's not many additional notes I can produce on a regular diatonic (precisely 3).
I just wonder if with some exercise it's not easyer to play chromatically on a valved diatonic than on a regular harp. With little practice I already have 6 additional notes there (1-6 blow bend).
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