Brendan Power & Alternative Harmonicas Forum

Good question. If you listen closely to accomplished Irish trad players, you'll hear they vary the melody every time around. Some do it more or take it further than others. These variations are not full-blown improvisation because the underlying melody is still the basis of the playing, but they do ...

Thanks for chiming in Ron. A few queries if you don't mind:

What inspired your Scottish Tuning?
When did you devise it?
Have you used it already, or will this be the first time it actually made in a harmonica?

Bp

I agree Edvin, they are exactly the same tuning starting in a different place in the scale. You can go this with other tunings that repeat as you say, like Solo, PowerChromatic etc. It's interesting that Ron Taylor developed his scale independently of Patrick, and it came to me a short time after In...

I recently received a request from a customer in Scotland, Ron Taylor, to retune a Lucky 13 to what he called "Scottish Tuning". This is his creation apparently, and allows him to play in D major as well as A major and A Mixolydian without bends. A Mixolydian is used a lot in Scottish folk music. Ch...

Hmmm... Doing that is cutting out a whole bunch of reeds from sounding! Not recommended. The windsavers block and un-block themselves advantageously in response to your breath. The idea is that they block the air through the non-sounding reed slot so the sounding reed has a purer sound and better re...

Thanks for these alternate Lucky 13 tunings Patrick. More reeds = more tuning fun

That's not something I can answer with sure knowledge - comb chamber size is one of the parameters I'm still experimenting with. However you could use a standard accordion wooden comb as a guide, because you know that it will definitely work well. Buy yourself an old junked accordion and you'll have...

I did a short video test of a slider chromatic version of Patrick's Inverted Bebop Tuning. Using the Kongsheng Lyra he kindly donated for the test, I tuned it from Solo C to Inverted Bebop D/G, which is not a big change in terms of notes. Here's the scale: SLIDE OUT CD EF# GA BC# CD EF# GA BC# CD EF...

Hi Umut, I'm not ready to offer my accordion reed harps for sale yet - still experimenting with various aspects to make them work better. No time scale to offer them, except sometime in 2020.

But you don't need to wait for me: I suggest you get hold of some reeds and start experimenting

Umut: You can use steel reeds as long as the instrument is allowed to dry out after playing. As for reed block widths etc, they are specified in the Harmonikas site tech details: https://www.harmonikas.cz/admin/files/ModuleText/16-sortiment-sizes.pdf Another place to buy accordion reeds is via the H...