My Eharp journey latest update

Bill McCloskey · From: Nanuet, NY

Been a while since I updated folks about my eharp journey.

It has been close to two years since I started down this road, and unfortunately, surgeries and recoveries took up a big chunk of that time. But progress was made none the less.

I experimented a lot in that time period. Tried adding extra strings to extend the tuning but quickly came to realize that the original 10 string tuning can't be beat, at least by me.

And, after trying a number of different steels, came back to the original eharp as the sound I love the best.

I even tried going back to some more traditional tunings, including the Morrell 10 string tuning. But in every case, I've been spoiled by the flexibility of the eharp tuning.

Here have been the challenges.

It is a hard tuning. You aren't going to be picking up this tuning and playing live a week later. It takes a lot of work and practice. Just learning the neck is a challenge. There are literally 23 different grips and positions where I can play a Dom 7th chord all under the 12th fret. Practicing the various grips, positions chords and scales is currently were I spend a lot of my time. You have to like hard work.

The joys:

I'm at the stage now where I feel comfortable with all the major grips and can move pretty quickly between them. The sound is unreal. To be able to literally play 3 and 4 part harmony on any note is just something I can't ever give up. The harmonic choices are endless.

Of course, slants are a thing of the past. Every chord you can name and all their inversions are available to you straight bar.

The big difference is the rather radical change in thinking from left hand movement to right hand movement. Everything is right hand work. I can play whole songs without ever leaving the fret I'm on. Everything is about grips and that takes some getting used to.

For material I'm using the RealBooks. My focus is playing jazz standards. But clear to me that it may be another year before I'm ready to show anyone what I'm doing. My main focus is technical; knowing every note, every grip, every chord, every scale. the focus on just technique and sound are paying dividends.

Bottom line: I'll never go back to another tuning. This will be my life's work from now on. I retire next year and my plan is to focus on this tuning full time in retirement.
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Rose D13 tuning: Cabinet by J.R. Rose with mechanics engineered by Darvin Willhoite.
Williams D10 9x9.
Mullen Pre-RP D10 8x5.

Gene Tani · From: Pac NW

That's really interesting, in light of the threads that said that Claude Brownell and maybe one or 2 other players in the world seem to be adept at this. I just got an eharp, I love it but I've been concentrating on getting the funny smell out of the case! Actually, blow drying and vacuum cleaning seem to work pretty well; then I was going to try E13 tuning

But I've also been looking at the Alkire books for sale on ebay etc and seeing if anything was appropriate for me, this is a candidate https://digitalcommons.wku.edu/pos04/15/

The other way i learn is to play the new instrument with a MIDI controller sitting in front of me so I can hear equal temperament
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- keyless Sonny Jenkins laps stay in tune forever!; Carter PSG
- The secret sauce: polyester sweatpants to buff your picks, cheapo Presonus channel strip for preamp/EQ/compress/limiter, Diet Mountain Dew

Bill McCloskey · From: Nanuet, NY

Gene, I have most of the Alkire eharp "steps" as they are called. You can purchase copies through the University of Illinois. The lessons start you off learning to read music immediately. There was a more collected version published in 4 "books" that covers the basic material. I might even have some dups around here someplace.

But an easier way to start to know the grips and notes is to use John Ely's scale and chord finder. He has the Eharp tuning as one of his presets.
https://www.hawaiiansteel.com/chordlocator/generic.php
_________________
Rose D13 tuning: Cabinet by J.R. Rose with mechanics engineered by Darvin Willhoite.
Williams D10 9x9.
Mullen Pre-RP D10 8x5.

Gene Tani · From: Pac NW

Thanks for the info.

Sure if you have a dup book, please PM me. I'm still new to dobro/steels in general so I've got my hands full w/c6 and unfancy 7th chords.
_________________
- keyless Sonny Jenkins laps stay in tune forever!; Carter PSG
- The secret sauce: polyester sweatpants to buff your picks, cheapo Presonus channel strip for preamp/EQ/compress/limiter, Diet Mountain Dew

Bill McCloskey · From: Nanuet, NY

Gene did you get the eharp on ebay recently, the epiphone model?
_________________
Rose D13 tuning: Cabinet by J.R. Rose with mechanics engineered by Darvin Willhoite.
Williams D10 9x9.
Mullen Pre-RP D10 8x5.

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