PowerBender Versus EdHarmonica

A space for players interested in my specialist harmonicas, alternate tunings, instructional material, recordings etc to ask questions and share information, experiences, videos etc.
rishio
Posts: 30
Joined: Sun Mar 26, 2017 11:09 am

Re: PowerBender Versus EdHarmonica

Post by rishio » Fri Aug 23, 2019 10:27 am

Hey Brendan,

Not quite yet. I had been practicing a lot but I fell ill in Asia with Tuberculosis and the financial strain plus health challenges put a damper on practicing for 3 months. I am better now and back on it - but not quite ready to share. I suppose that’s the ultimate answer on how the tuning is going. I do plan to do harmonica soundtracks for short films I’m working on and will get back to this thread, but it still may be some time - I just started learning harmonica, and music in general, 3 years ago! So yeah, next time I hope to do the talking with music!

rishio
Posts: 30
Joined: Sun Mar 26, 2017 11:09 am

Re: PowerBender Versus EdHarmonica

Post by rishio » Mon Oct 05, 2020 3:16 pm

.. deleted post ..
Last edited by rishio on Mon Jul 25, 2022 5:49 am, edited 2 times in total.


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Brendan
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Re: PowerBender Versus EdHarmonica

Post by Brendan » Tue Jul 26, 2022 10:34 am

Sounding good Rishio!

As I think we discussed earlier in the thread, I've used my own version of ED Tuning for many years. It's the same repeating scale, but starts on a hole higher up. It's the bottom octave of Paddy Richter (or Melody Maker) repeated, so I call it Paddy-Extended. ED uses the same scale but starts a hole lower (in the key of C, ED would start on A, and PE would start on C).

Either way, it's an excellent Hexatonic scale for the harmonica! I have quite a few different types of harps using it, especially X-Reed types. Most of the tracks on my 2012 album "New Chinese Harmonica" use various X-Reed harps in Paddy-Extended:

https://www.brendan-power.com/NewChineseHarmonica.php

I see you're in Taipei! I've visited and played in Taiwan, and have some good friends in the harmonica community there. Great place and nice people! Long may they enjoy their peaceful democratic life :-)

rishio
Posts: 30
Joined: Sun Mar 26, 2017 11:09 am

Re: PowerBender Versus EdHarmonica

Post by rishio » Tue Jul 26, 2022 11:04 am

Hey Brendan,

I’d be happy to change the name of the Title for this thread (not sure how to). I kind of don’t know why I called it one tuning compared to another. They both have their advantages and disadvantages - and this is your forum so my full respect to the history of the tuning as you say. I am fully committed to it and it’s working out well for me. I view it as more of a pentatonic tuning and it’s intuitive to improvise with. As you said in your book, the pentatonic scale is like money in the bank (or something like that).

Powerbender is what got me into harmonica in the first place and my first harmonica was your Powerbender ones, maybe about 5 years ago. These alternative tuning really helped me learn the harmonica faster - though I have a very long way to go. I don’t plan to ever use another tuning, though I’m keeping an eye out for new innovations in the harmonica world. And now you got me excited about the iPad Harmonica Studio and I’ve gone down that rabbit hole. I don’t think I’ll use Amps again either now.

Yup, I live in Taipei. It is a nice place. I’m curious who you know here. I really only know one diatonic harp player here who does this crazy jazzy stuff - and very few seem to know what a harmonica is - at least the diatonic one. I still consider myself a newbie in this world and someday I’d like to meet some of the great harp players. If you ever come up here again…!!
Brendan wrote:
Tue Jul 26, 2022 10:34 am
Sounding good Rishio!

As I think we discussed earlier in the thread, I've used my own version of ED Tuning for many years. It's the same repeating scale, but starts on a hole higher up. It's the bottom octave of Paddy Richter (or Melody Maker) repeated, so I call it Paddy-Extended. ED uses the same scale but starts a hole lower (in the key of C, ED would start on A, and PE would start on C).

Either way, it's an excellent Hexatonic scale for the harmonica! I have quite a few different types of harps using it, especially X-Reed types. Most of the tracks on my 2012 album "New Chinese Harmonica" use various X-Reed harps in Paddy-Extended:

https://www.brendan-power.com/NewChineseHarmonica.php

I see you're in Taipei! I've visited and played in Taiwan, and have some good friends in the harmonica community there. Great place and nice people! Long may they enjoy their peaceful democratic life :-)

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