Brendan Power & Alternative Harmonicas Forum

Its an interesting question. Actually I've been talking about this recently with Roni Eytan, who plays my Quartertone DoubleChrom. It works, but is an expensive, unwieldy beast, so I was looking for another way to give him the quarter tone options he needs in a simpler harmonica. What you can do is ...

Hi Lizzy, All of these and more harmonica products/parts are in various stages of development, but in recent months I've been away travelling, as well as become focussed on a collaborative recording project - which is currently taking up quite a bit of time. In a general sense, discussing new produc...

Robert: the Suzuki Overdrive gives the option to have both overblow assist and isolated-reed expression (as with valves). The SlipSlider gives isolated-reed expression on the blow notes if you slide the draw reedplate only halfway. Doing that stops the draw reeds from vibrating, because they are abo...

Another approach is to adopt a design like the Tombo S50. Pat Missin has written a good article on it and other slideless chromatics here: https://www.patmissin.com/ffaq/q24.html This requires no bending or overblowing to get a chromatic scale, though they are possible. Quite an interesting harmonic...

March I think. New design/type of Stealth Valve.

Beautiful Winslow, thanks!

I'm an ear player. I tried teaching myself to sight read a few times over the years, and can use the dots (very slowly) to help resolve the correct notes in a certain passage, but I'll only resort to them rarely. I memorise by simple repetition, going over and over a phrase until it feels flowing an...

For the lower 2/3 of the reed you should do standard embossing. It's not possible to use the nail art pen further down as the reed is flexible; it will slide underneath the tip of the tool. Anyway embossing the lower 2/3 in the conventional way is easy and effective, so there is no need to do anythi...

Here's a video to accompany an upcoming article in the UK Harmonica World magazine:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQP6tZRXbTU