Here's the promised follow-up video, where I discuss some tips for how to approach playing the half-valved diatonic! Specifically, I talk about achieving good valved tone, getting and controlling valved bends, getting good valved vibrato, and playing legato (smoothly bending in and out of valved notes). I also directly compare (head to head) the tone of valved and unvalved notes (the same note), and valved bends and regular bends. Enjoy!
As always, I'm happy to provide more details or to clarify any questions!
Hi Tooka, that's a very interesting question, and one I honestly hadn't thought of before. I can see where you logic is coming from, though: Valves direct more air through reeds that normally wouldn't get that much pressure. I will say that probably all the same caveat's apply as to normal bends: if you try to "force" them, you are blowing harder, and stressing the reeds more, and they'll break sooner. On the other hand, I don't know that there would be a correlation between valves and shorter time to reed breakage if the proper techniques are used. Do chromatic reeds blow out faster than diatonics? I actually don't know the answer to that question (any one care to chime in?), but my sense is "no". So, I guess what I'm saying is that I'm not really sure! Time will tell, but right now, I'm leaning towards the belief that they'll last just as long as a normal harp...
