Shifted/Inverted Bebop tuning for non-slide AND SLIDE harps
Posted: Tue Aug 27, 2019 2:51 pm
ADDENDUM 20 MARCH 2023:
I am happy to announce that the tuning known in this and other discussions as "Inverted Bebop" or "Shifted Bepop" was NOT discovered first here or by me. I learned a couple days ago that it was proposed by Kevin R. Baker "about 25 to 30 years ago". He even wrote about it in American Harmonica News Letter.
I recently found this tuning on Pat Missin's catalog of tunings; it is labeled 5.8. Why did I not notice this before? The tuning shown in the Missin catalog is in D Major, whereas the vast majority of tunings there are in C Major. That's my reason -- even if it is not a good excuse.
Mr. Baker has been kind enough to see what I have posted, and he and I have had a good visit online. He said to me "I never named these tunings. I had only been playing for ten years and I was studying music theory when I thought these tunings would be cool and if mastered sound different than anyone else."
Unless/until Mr. Baker decides to give this tuning a name, it shall remain (as far as I am concerned) Inverted Bebop.
Cheers to Mr. Kevin Baker!
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Putting a 7-note scale into a blow/draw harmonica can result in alternating/inverted breath patterns. PowerChromatic (as one example) fixes this problem by repeating the D note (assuming a Cmaj harp). This allows for expressive draw-bending of the E note (the major 3rd) and the G note (the 5th), as well as the B and one of the Ds.
I wondered how something like PowerChromatic could be modified so that the C tonic (assuming a Cmaj harp) could also be draw-bent. What I came up with is basically Bebop tuning, but inverted or “spirally phase shifted” forward by one note. Compared with PowerChromatic, instead of repeating the D note of the major diatonic scale, a Bb note is added. Furthermore, PowerChromatic begins the first position diatonic scale in the blow layer, whereas this tuning begins the first position diatonic scale in the draw layer.
In the diagram below, we see that the tonic, the 3rd, the 5th and the B can all be draw-bent. Every draw note bends by one simple semitone.
Also note that each octave has a partial IV chord (F - A) and a partial V chord (G - B).
I checked Pat Missin’s catalog of tunings, and found something interesting. The pattern of Bb-D-F-A // C-E-G-B appears just once, and as only a part of a longer, more complex tuning. I am referring to holes 4-7 of “6.7 True Chromatic Tuning” by Eugene Ivanov. Essentially, the tuning that I show here is the repetition of that tuning’s holes 4-7.
download/file.php?mode=view&id=589
I am happy to announce that the tuning known in this and other discussions as "Inverted Bebop" or "Shifted Bepop" was NOT discovered first here or by me. I learned a couple days ago that it was proposed by Kevin R. Baker "about 25 to 30 years ago". He even wrote about it in American Harmonica News Letter.
I recently found this tuning on Pat Missin's catalog of tunings; it is labeled 5.8. Why did I not notice this before? The tuning shown in the Missin catalog is in D Major, whereas the vast majority of tunings there are in C Major. That's my reason -- even if it is not a good excuse.
Mr. Baker has been kind enough to see what I have posted, and he and I have had a good visit online. He said to me "I never named these tunings. I had only been playing for ten years and I was studying music theory when I thought these tunings would be cool and if mastered sound different than anyone else."
Unless/until Mr. Baker decides to give this tuning a name, it shall remain (as far as I am concerned) Inverted Bebop.
Cheers to Mr. Kevin Baker!
==========================================================================
Putting a 7-note scale into a blow/draw harmonica can result in alternating/inverted breath patterns. PowerChromatic (as one example) fixes this problem by repeating the D note (assuming a Cmaj harp). This allows for expressive draw-bending of the E note (the major 3rd) and the G note (the 5th), as well as the B and one of the Ds.
I wondered how something like PowerChromatic could be modified so that the C tonic (assuming a Cmaj harp) could also be draw-bent. What I came up with is basically Bebop tuning, but inverted or “spirally phase shifted” forward by one note. Compared with PowerChromatic, instead of repeating the D note of the major diatonic scale, a Bb note is added. Furthermore, PowerChromatic begins the first position diatonic scale in the blow layer, whereas this tuning begins the first position diatonic scale in the draw layer.
In the diagram below, we see that the tonic, the 3rd, the 5th and the B can all be draw-bent. Every draw note bends by one simple semitone.
Also note that each octave has a partial IV chord (F - A) and a partial V chord (G - B).
I checked Pat Missin’s catalog of tunings, and found something interesting. The pattern of Bb-D-F-A // C-E-G-B appears just once, and as only a part of a longer, more complex tuning. I am referring to holes 4-7 of “6.7 True Chromatic Tuning” by Eugene Ivanov. Essentially, the tuning that I show here is the repetition of that tuning’s holes 4-7.
download/file.php?mode=view&id=589