RE Hybrid#stacked harmonica

<<QUOTE JAMES: Hello all

I've only recently joined this group and really just started playing
the harmonica. I was a little put off by the "bluesy" side with the
diatonic, not keen on the chromatic, very keen on the orchestral ones
but not so keen on the price!! [only a school teacher].

I read with interest the Asian method of playing stacked harmonicas,
common for tremolo, but stacked diatonics like C and Db seemed a good
idea to me. I tried the hand movement for the two and decided to join
them somehow. Tried initially with a 6mm sheet of plastic between the
two and then used double sided sticky tape to keep them together. I've
now made one with the keys I've mentioned above and basically play it
a bit like an orchestral one. I used a couple of brass tubes either
side 16mm in length held together by thin bolts to make the assembly
rigid. It is really like a small orchestral one and can also be played
on a rack. I'd post a photo but I don't think this yahoogroup will
allow that.

Looking at a Suzuki brochure earlier today - What I would like to know
is how you orchestral folk play the orchestral harmonica? I noticed
the hinge and imagined that you would open up the hinge to play chords
and close to go from say a natural on the lower tier to a accidental
on the higher tier.

To me playing stacked harmonicas seems a natural way of getting over
the problem of missing notes. By all means contact me offlist if you
prefer.

Many thanks
~James   UNQUOTE >>

I hope James won't mind me chiming in and saying that he and I have been 
having a very interesting off-list discussion about the whys and wherefores 
of stacking harmonicas together (I'm just wondering whether two diatonics 
stacked equals a "big harmonica" - I'll leave Jonathan to adjudicate on that 
  ;-) )  I don't know what practical issues arise from the far-eastern 
practice of stacking C/C# harmonicas together, but when I've tried this with 
diatonics I find it quite difficult to get a good position for the upper 
harp so that it doesn't get in the way when I'm playing the lower one.  
Unlike James, who has a permanent and rigid method of connecting the harps 
together, my experiments have involved blu-tack and are in definite need of 
further refinement.  Personally, I think I'd resort to a chromatic for my 
Irish tunes that have accidentals in them rather than a stacking system, but 
I can see a lot of potential when playing medleys of tunes that involve 
key-changes, e.g. from D to G in Irish sets (whaddya think, Dave?!)

Steve


http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/trad_irish_harmonica
HEAR my CD clips: http://www.gjk2.com/steveshaw/cd.htm
READ review of my CD: http://www.irishmusicreview.com/sshaw.htm




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