Brendan Power & Alternative Harmonicas Forum

This chart shows 24 variations of Inverted Bebop: 12 sharp-slide keys and 12 flat-slide keys. Each scale's tonics are shown in boldface and a slightly larger font size. Each major diatonic scale is accompanied by a repeating "extra note" which is two semitones lower than the tonic and is located dir...

A US-based customizer pointed out to me that the tuning in the post above would be an exceedingly difficult re-tuning project. With that in mind, I offer the tuning below. What’s in it: 1) Full I and IV chords that are in-line with each other on the low end. 2) Three continuous octaves of G (the I c...

The post above considers -- but does not show -- the 5 and 6 blow notes as Eb. The diagram below does show this. Additionally, it shows a simpler and more central C blues scale (for when playing over the IV chord) which is made possible* by one of those new Eb notes. It is traced out with an orange ...

I made a prototype of the January 2 tuning shown above and tried it out. I liked the main G blues scale (from 4 draw to 8 draw) so much that I decided to string two of them end-to-end in the tuning below. Note that I used Edvin 's Eb advice in the upper G blues scale. This gives the blow holes 1 thr...

Alas, the basic concept of the tuning in the opening post can fit in a Seydel Big Six. We only need to delete hole 1 of the tuning shown above. However, the Kongsheng Baby Fat remains the far less expensive option.

Compare the tuning above with this: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=616&p=2644&hilit=Baby#p2644

I was comparing my Country-tuned Seydel Big Six es with my Country-tuned Kongsheng Baby Fat s. Both are of high quality and a joy to use. In particular, I was considering the possibilities afforded by the Kongsheng 's additional hole. It occurred to me that it could be used -- in the blow and the dr...

In the comment above, Edvin asks if I "have considered lowering 7B to an Eb?". No, I had not. But now I will! Thanks. As for the inverted breath pattern in the hole 5, I was just exploring getting a IVdom7 in the blow layer while also providing a bend-less b3rd for the blues scale. As a general -- a...

I now see that the tuning just above is a cousin to third position standard Richter, where an F harp would be used to play G blues, and a tonic is at the 4 draw. Most of this tuning's departures from Richter involve getting the low chords back to what they would have been (albiet inverted) in second...

At https://www.brendan-power.com/harmonicas-irish.php Brendan Power says: "The Slide Diatonic is another of my harmonica inventions. I first recorded with it on my 1994 album New Irish Harmonica, and I've used the Slide Diatonic for all my traditional Irish playing ever since." The tunings for Brend...