0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.
This is kind of like " Who's on First "
Swing604 was pleased with the results. Anyone else try it?
I've been playing and recording with half-valved chromatics exclusively ever since I first started on the chrom over 25 years ago. 'Half-valved' does NOT mean cutting the valves in half, it means removing half the valves from a harmonica (I also play half-valved diatonics). Cutting the valves down in length has a similar effect: it stops them working, in effect the same as removing them altogether.The intention is to allow interactive reed bending on the high pitched reed in each air channel (same as on an unvalved 'blues harp'). This is where the blow and draw reeds act together to create a very stable, earthy-sounding bend that is different to the bending you can get on a fully valved chromatic (which is from valve-isolated single reeds).I came to the chrom from the diatonic; like others who make the same shift I missed my gutsy blues bends! Straight away I started experimenting with removing valves and alternate tunings. It's something that will appeal more to people who (like me) play diatonic as well; those who started on chrom from the beginning will probably not like half-valving. The reeds with valves removed sound breathier and less 'pure', and require a slightly different breathing technique.If you want to try it on a standard C 12 hole chrom in Solo Tuning, you need to look at the scale first. Only on half the holes is there a tone difference between blow and draw, which will allow a semitone interactive-reed bend: the odd-numbered holes (1,3,5,7,9,11).Remove the covers and pull off the OUTSIDE valves on those holes. This will allow you to get semitone bends on all the D, D#, A and A# notes through the range (the draw notes in holes 1,3,5,7,9,11). Actually most chroms already don't have an outside valve on hole 11, and you often hear players like Toots or Stevie Wonder bending the A and A# in hole 11; that's interactive-reed bending! By removing the other valves mentioned, we are simply extending that ability on the usable reeds through the rest of the range.You need to have a chrom that is very airtight to start with, as removing valves will reduce the response on the affected draw reeds. To minimise the difference, make sure the mouthpiece/slider and reedplate/comb airtightness is really good. In addition, minimise the gap on the BLOW reed in each hole wher the outside valve has been removed. This will reduce the amount of air that comes in through the blow reed when you draw, and improve response and bending ability significantly.ADVANTAGESa. The extra soul and expression of diatonic-type note bending.b. Lots of what I call 'Bend Enharmonics': notes of the same pitch that can be obtained through playing the built-in reed AND by bending the appropriate draw reed. For example, the slide-in C# and G# blow notes can be obtained by bending down the draw D and A notes. The slide-out draw D and A notes can be emulated with slide-in D# and A# bend draw notes.This gives you more options with tone and pitch, as well as many extra phrasing possibilities for the same series of notes.C. Last but not least: much less hassle with sticking valves! It's the outside valves that cause all the trouble; remove them and you remove the trouble. If you like, you can remove ALL the outside valves to this end (and to even up tone on all draw notes), although the bending effect is negligible on the even-numbered holes 2,4,6,8,10,12 (because the draw/blow relationship is only a semitone).DISADVANTAGES1. Altered tone and response on draw notes2. Difference of tone between blow and draw notesBoth of these effects can be minimised as described above, but will still probably be enough to deter most chromatic players (a very conservative bunch, by and large REMOVING INSIDE VALVESI have tried this and don't personally like it. However, if you are an overblower, doing this on a VERY airtight chrom will allow you to overblow the chromatic as well, giving yet more enharmonics and phrasing possibilities.ALTERNATE TUNINGSIf you really want to get the most from half-valving, you need to retune the chrom so that there is a tone or more difference between ALL blow and draw notes in each air channel. The Diminished and Wholetone/Augmented tunings have this difference, and are great with half-valving. There are loads of other possibilities, and I use several of my own tunings which allow interactive-reed bends on the high-pitched reed in every hole.If you want to hear half-valved chromatics (and diatonics), check out any of the music clips on my website. Every one is recorded with a half-valved harmonica.Regards,Brendan
The Standard Diminished has every draw a tone above every blow, slide out and in. That means you can half-valve it and get juicy semitone interactive reed bends on all the draw notes. That give extra expression and LOTS of what I call 'Bend Enharmonics'.For example, every slide-in blow note can be doubled by a slide-out draw bend. Every slide-out draw note can be doubled by a slide-in draw bend. On a 12 hole chromatic, Diminished layouts offer 12 normal enharmonc notes. However, The Bend Enharmonics on a half-valved Standard Diminished offer 24 more notes that can be played normally or bent! That's 36 same note options out of 48 instead of 12! It offers a lot of extra phrasing possibilities: for example, EVERY scale or phrase you can think of can be played without use of the slider if the player prefers that choice. In fact, if you want to use bending to get your notes, the Standard Diminished needs only TWO scale patterns to get all 12 keys: one starting on a blow note, and the other on a draw. One does 4 keys, the other another 4, and the slider allows you to duplicate one of them a semitone up to to get the final 4 keys. There are even two options to choose about which you two breath/bending patterns you prefer:1. Starting blow slide-out, blow slide-in and draw slide-out.2. Starting draw slide-in, blow slide-in and draw slide-outAs someone who uses half-valved diatonics and chromatics for all my work I can't see the advantage of missing out on all that extra expression and phrasing flexbility. However, if you prefer your chromatics full valved
I am reflecting the values of Doug Tanner, who posts here as Wendellfiddler--You can't get the backpressure vibrato without the valves.OTOH, you can get the diatonic style bends--I prefer the former.Gary
