Double harmonic custom tuning.

[UdovisDevoh]

I recently retuned a Richter major harmonica to double harmonic scale. With that kind of tuning, I get a very exotic middle eastern sound somehow similar to Lee Oskar Minor Harmonic, but with more bright major-ish chords. With that kind of tuning, I can easily play Misirlou (theme from Pulp Fiction, which is originally middle eastern folk song). I can also play arab music and flamenco music.

Here's a chart of my modified A major harp. If you compare it to orignal layout, you can see that some draw reeds must be lowered of one semitone.
Blow |A |C#|E |A |C#|E|A |C#|E|A
Draw|Bb|E |G#|Bb|D |F|G#|Bb|D|F

Edit: Here are two a videos showing what it can do:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6cL2_tN7S8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8huE7evuSPk

[triona]

Thanks for sharing.
Looks very interesting and worth a try.
Quite easy to retune, just the B down to Bb and the F# down to F, at least 5 reeds altogether.
I like mideastern music and flamenco etc.


dear greetings
triona

[UdovisDevoh]

Yes, exactly 5 draw reeds. I might post a video showing what that kind of tuning can do.

[karl.nilsson]

Looks really interesting!

You might want to consider retuning 2 draw two semitones down, from E to D, as the E is already represented at 3 blow, and it would make the chord on the draw notes more consistent, Bb7 ( Bb | D | F | G# ).

I really had to look up this tuning, I found this on http://musicianshangout.com/Music/Theor ... /776?key=A

A Double Harmonic (A-Bb-C#-D-E-F-G#)

Scale Name A Double Harmonic
Modal Group Name Double Harmonic
Mode Sequence 1
Degrees 1-b2-3-4-5-b6-7
Note Names A-Bb-C#-D-E-F-G#
Note Count 7
Other Names

Bhairav Thaat
Byzantine Major Gypsy
Hitzazkiar
Hungarian Folk
Mela Mayamalavagaula
Raga Paraj

Cheers,
Karl

[UdovisDevoh]

Thank you for your feedback! Yes, that would make sense. It would be something similar to the transformation applied to convert to paddy richter, but on 2 draw instead of 3 blow.

[UdovisDevoh]

I just added a video in my original post.

[UdovisDevoh]

Here's another video showing that kind of tuning:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8huE7ev ... e=youtu.be