Finding myself deep in Shakespeare country in the heart of Tudor England, I happened upon ye olde echo chamber and harp in pocket struck up the melancholic Tudor air Greensleeves, supposedly written by King Henry VIII. A period blues number (not XII bar though) about rejection by a fair maiden to his advances, a sort of yester year My baby done me wrong.
There were quite a few of these echo chambers on route and I couldn't resist playing it ;) and it went down quite well with folk.
Nice I liked that. I take it that's the Stratford canal.Not a big fan of English folk music but never heard played on a harp before, but that has raised my interest.
Sounds like you tapped into a great tuning for this melody. I'd like to hear more like this. Maybe you discovered the proper tuning for how this should be played because it does sound soulful with flatted notes in the scale/key you are using. I don't know enough music theory - is this modal?
I was in Stratford and played this under the canal bridges but the vid. above was on another stretch of canal in the area. I'm not big on the English or period folk scene myself though I did a 16th century tune 'Lo, how a rose' on harp a while ago and it's good fun.
https://youtu.be/B0vfqBDeI18
My theory is pretty basic so I don't know how best to answer Valley Duke. If I hear any tune I nearly always find I'm playing it in second position which is what I think I'm doing here. 2 draw start and finish on an A harp. The tune has a minor feel to it so It's probably in e minor here. 2nd position may not have been the best choice for ease of play but I agree the low bends do give it a soulful feel.
I have since looked at other positions and 3rd works pretty good (like 2nd in that no ob's required) just 4 draw bend and double draw bend on 3. Other positions didn't work so well.
@GreyOwl You pitched eveything really well. I think I'm hearing a great leading tone/subtonic. And like @knight66 said, these old melodies sound great on harmonica! Henry VIII would dig it.
I think one of the cool things about 2nd position playing is getting the pitch right qhile working with a particular temperment. Sounds so different than 1st or 3rd.
I was a little puzzled by the acoustics. I heard a little bit of the reverb I'd expect but not nearly as much as I expected. I guess the last recording I saw like that was a dry culvert so the ground was another hard surface for the sound to bounce off of. You also had a pretty tight cup. It sounded good. My brain was just expecting more echo. (Was the mic directional?)
Nate. Yes the echo on the vid. wasn't as strong as it was live.
The vid. was shot on my smartphone which is not great for sound (far too much high end which then distorts) hence the tight cup I used. Another factor I think is Youtube doesn't produce a copy of the uploaded video it compresses it which has a negative effect on the sound.
If I am recording controlled vids at home I generally increase the reverb more than usual to compensate for its reduction in youtube.
For comparison of positions here is the link for Greensleeves in 3rd position (can't embed at present) I don't think it works quite as well even allowing for the pants location and even less reverb!
I like echoey places. There is a parking garage under the local supermarket that has great acoustics. Unfortunately, they installed a new bottle redemption area and they pipe lousy pop out into the area. I suppose if I really wanted to record there I might convince them to turn it off for a little bit. The laundry room in my building is pretty good to. I'm not sure exactly what it is that a naturally echoey place does that reverb doesn't quite do.
Beautiful music in a beautiful place! ---------- Konstantin Kolesnichenko(Ukraine) http://kolesnichenko-harmonica.com/
Last Edited by wheel on Oct 01, 2017 5:36 AM