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Blowdown with Will Wilde: Comparison of two Tunings

Posted: Sat Jun 20, 2020 12:19 pm
by Brendan
I recently completed a fun video collaboration with British rock harmonica specialist Will Wilde:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5V0mPDpxYk

We're playing our own harp tunings, which are similar but different. The track is in Em, he's using a Wilde Rock Tuning harp 2nd Position in A, I'm using a PowerBender in C 5th position. I include info and tuning diagrams at the end, for anyone interested.

Re: Blowdown with Will Wilde: Comparison of two Tunings

Posted: Sat Jun 20, 2020 5:41 pm
by triona
Nicely done.
Thanks for the background info.


dear greetings
triona

Re: Blowdown with Will Wilde: Comparison of two Tunings

Posted: Sun Jun 21, 2020 3:30 am
by madden
That was a great collaboration between two of the best in my opinion, I hope you all go have a look. Really good Brendan!!

Re: Blowdown with Will Wilde: Comparison of two Tunings

Posted: Sun Jun 21, 2020 12:52 pm
by Brendan
Thanks... It's interesting to compare the Wilde Rock and PowerBender tunings, each has strong and weak points - as with all tunings!
PB & Wilde Tunings.png
PB & Wilde Tunings.png (74.96 KiB) Viewed 9846 times
Will got in touch with me to ask about PowerBender and PowerDraw when he was working on his own tuning. He liked both and has kept the top octave holes 8-10 identical on his Wilde Tuning. However he wanted bigger bends in the middle octave, which is where you see the differences.

I can appreciate their attractiveness, as I like big bends too! However, by adopting them you lose the ability to play chromatically with ease in that middle octave zone. Of course the chromatic notes are available with in-between bends, but these are hard to get in tune and not really usable in practical terms for most players. The result is that the Wilde harp becomes a powerful Second Position blues/rock wailing machine, but is not so user-friendly for tunes with more complex chord changes. PowerBender doesn't have the same big bends on the 6 and 7 draw, but the ability to play easy semitone bends to get the chromatic notes you normally have to obtain with overblows is, for me, worth the swap.

But it's all subjective with this stuff - it depends what you're after. Different strokes for different folks, as they say...

Re: Blowdown with Will Wilde: Comparison of two Tunings

Posted: Mon Jun 22, 2020 4:10 pm
by Sachlaw
Brendan wrote:
Sun Jun 21, 2020 12:52 pm
Thanks... It's interesting to compare the Wilde Rock and PowerBender tunings, each has strong and weak points - as with all tunings!

PB & Wilde Tunings.png

Will got in touch with me to ask about PowerBender and PowerDraw when he was working on his own tuning. He liked both and has kept the top octave holes 8-10 identical on his Wilde Tuning. However he wanted bigger bends in the middle octave, which is where you see the differences.

I can appreciate their attractiveness, as I like big bends too! However, by adopting them you lose the ability to play chromatically with ease in that middle octave zone. Of course the chromatic notes are available with in-between bends, but these are hard to get in tune and not really usable in practical terms for most players. The result is that the Wilde harp becomes a powerful Second Position blues/rock wailing machine, but is not so user-friendly for tunes with more complex chord changes. PowerBender doesn't have the same big bends on the 6 and 7 draw, but the ability to play easy semitone bends to get the chromatic notes you normally have to obtain with overblows is, for me, worth the swap.

But it's all subjective with this stuff - it depends what you're after. Different strokes for different folks, as they say...
Great video and great comparison of the tunings.

Re: Blowdown with Will Wilde: Comparison of two Tunings

Posted: Wed Jun 24, 2020 7:50 pm
by Mateo
Stunning!

Are you willing to share which effects you were using? Really fit that (hard rock electric guitar) style of playing.

Thanks!!

Re: Blowdown with Will Wilde: Comparison of two Tunings

Posted: Thu Jun 25, 2020 6:01 am
by Brendan
In my case I was using a preset patch called 'Arena' in a small multi FX unit called the Korg Pandora. It's now discontinued, but you can buy them second hand.

You could find or make similar patches in any multi FX unit, on an iPad, or using discreet effects pedals. The main elements of the sound are common ones: delay, reverb, amp and speaker modelling, chorus, noise gate.

Re: Blowdown with Will Wilde: Comparison of two Tunings

Posted: Fri Jul 24, 2020 10:12 pm
by Mateo
Thank you!!!!

Received full set of powerbenders — and GRATEFUL for the book! Ha!

After 40+ years of playing...mind blown. Opened up a universe of new approaches. I’m also a tenor player, but I’m having too much fun with these — and now that I have all the notes (without tour de force awful overblowing), the horn has been idle!

Thanks again!

Re: Blowdown with Will Wilde: Comparison of two Tunings

Posted: Sat Jul 25, 2020 5:45 am
by Brendan
Glad you're liking your PowerBender harps Mateo 👍