Brendan Power & Alternative Harmonicas Forum

I have played halfvalved powerbender a couple of years now and the transition from halfvalved powerbender to powebender SlipSlider seems easy to me. The only add for me is one movement. Only thing i am missing right now is that all my notes can bend with halfvalving. But that will maybe disapear in time. And i agree with Roverharp regarding slipslider that it would be good to just take the new features in small bites. I remember when i shifted from Richter to Powerbender. I used something i already knew. And that was that holes 1-4 on Powerbender was the same as on Richter. So i started making different riffs from hole 2-5, 3-6, 4-7 . I always started from a hole i knew from Richter tuning. When i felt confident i did it backwards and always ended on a hole i knew from Richter tuning. hole 7-10 have always felt natural for me on Powerbender because i always disliked the shifted pattern from Richter. But even so it would been easy to instead use the Powerdraw SlipSlider and do different riffs from 4-7, 5-8, 6-9 and backwards. Dont know if its useful but i did it in small steps.

Lizzy wrote: ↑Thu May 24, 2018 2:38 pm Dont know if its useful but i did it in small steps.

Yes. I think it is useful.

I made the same experience with many different things.
Some examples:

1. Chromatical harmonica: After having put them aside for decades, I started with my rhythmic polyphonic style on Richter tuned chrom (a special tuning from Seydel). First not using the slider. Then using it very rarely and deliberate. Later on loosing my old difficulties with single notes and chromatic use step by step. After finally getting me some slide diatonics like Seydel Sampler, Irish Session Harp or Paddy Richter Slide Diatonics from Brendan, which I mastered quite easy, it went further on even faster with the Chrom.

2. Bass-harmonica: Starting with diatonic Pocket Bass and getting able to play it well opened the road to success on chromatic bass and double bass - which I use much more often since.

3. When learning the fujara (a large and very low overtone flute) first I failed when beginning with the lowest one (which is 1,70 meters long! and has a lipping of the lowest note that is really very hard to achieve!). As I took a higher pitched one which allowed to close the finger holes and play it as a normal overtone flute, it was much easier and at least successful within a quite short time. Then opening the finger holes and getting used to it. Eventually the low one nearly played itself.


I wish you a good success with your new harps and a lot of joy when learning them.


dear greetings
triona

Thanks all of you for your interesting and helpful contributions. Great to get a spread of ideas, impressions, suggestions.

On a personal note I think I should clarify something. I created the SlipSlider as a (hopefully) useful harmonica for the biggest group of harmonica players: those who play unvalved diatonics. The vast majority of them use Richter tuning, but the SlipSlider can be adapted for other tunings like PowerDraw, PowerBender and many more.

Unvalved harmonicas allow overbending - which has gained a lot of traction in recent decades because it's been the only practical way to retain the traditional sound/tone of the diatonic harp and achieve full chromaticism. However it requires hand customised harps to work properly, plus many years of practice to do it well. And the sound and pitch of the overbends is not always good to many peoples' ears.

The SlipSlider gives diatonic harp players a new alternative. The accomplished ones can continue to use all their hard-won overbending skills, and add new bends as alternative notes or for expression. Those who struggle with overbends, or just don't like them, now have a new way to get full chromaticism without compromising on the traditional unvalved sound and tone they love.

All good, and I hope it's well received by the players it's designed for over time. As for me personally, though I'm enjoying exploring the SlipSlider, I was never anti-valve. Most of my harps are half-valved and the ones that aren't are x-reed harps like the quad-reed AsiaBend, UniBender, XB40, or triple-reed types (mostly SUB30 customs in PowerBender tunings).

My heart is more with developing the x-reed direction for my own playing. I know that's likely to remain a niche area in the general harmonica field, but to me it's the most interesting and exciting. I also think half-valved chromatics are the current best option for easy chromaticism with bending expression - they're my choice anyway, and have been for a long time.

But... All these harps (except the AsiaBend) require valves, and the vast majority of players don't like valves at all. Fair enough: they do alter the sound of the harp, and can cause trouble (though very rarely with half-valving). Even though I don't play unvalved harps normally myself, it's an interesting challenge to think of ways to enhance the capabilities of such harps for the big majority who do.

The SlipSlider is one of those ways. I think it's a good one, but clearly it's not as simple a no-brainer to adapt to as I first thought! I have some other approaches along similar lines in the pipeline, and will soon release a simple idea that should be easy for any harp player to use. Happily it can work in conjunction with the SlipSlider to add a double whammy of extra punch to the humble 10-hole diatonic

Brendan wrote: ↑Wed May 23, 2018 5:20 am Hi Lizzy - yes, I've designed and made it, you can see it in the Seydel assembly video from 22:00:

https://youtu.be/GWBCzDFUQLE

It will fit all Seydel 1847 combs: standard, and both types of SlipSlider.

You can see it on offer at a reduced price (30% off) if bought with the Raw Parts Kit here:

http://www.brendan-power.com/SlipSlider ... iderSeydel

Is there any way i can buy it separate because i bought the raw parts before the sanding jig was for sale.

Hello Lizzy

Yes, I will send you a private message with a link.

Thanks David!

Will you be releasing a slip-slider for Hohners with regular breath direction?
Have you had any luck with Lucky 13 versions?
Although I haven’t really been able to play mine much(or any harp at all in the last couple months) I think it’s a great tool.

I just asked if they had any plan to make the overblow booster for righthanded who play powerbender. I guess not for a longer time. I guess that they have to much on the "to do list" so i am pretty sure we need to be patient. Im glad i have the slipslider for Seydel powerbender to use but would sure also try the overblow booster if i had the opportunity. Most wanted to try is the Unibender. Unibender is the only solution that dont require any external movement(e.g switcharp, slipslider, overblow booster) to play chromaticly and the solution is internal. I really dont know but Unibender is maybe more intuitive to play in this regards.

Sorry for delays in the various harps or variants mentioned above, but I'm snowed under with missions at present, mostly to do with production issues for the SlipSlider and Overblow Booster, plus other general life stuff. Not getting much design/testing time. All will come eventually.