Brendan Power & Alternative Harmonicas Forum

In the spirit of author Philip K. Dick ...

What if a half-valved slide-harp dreams about being a blues harp?

Allow me to break this down ...

As they are labeled above, the 1 through 10 blow notes are identical to what would be in a C major harp in standard Richter tuning. As such, they make a C major (IV) chord all the way through.

The 1 through 5 draw notes are also identical to standard Richter. Holes 0 through 4 make a G major (I) chord. To the right of this, we have nearly Richter but with the As removed. So from the 3 blow onward we have an implied G major chord with opportunities to include the b7 F note.

Pushing the slider in drops each of the slide-out draw notes of holes 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9 and 10 to what would have been their respective draw-bends to the next lower blues scale note. The bright blue highlighting and the color-filled columns help to illustrate this.

The oscillating in/out slider actions for 2 blow, 5 blow, 8 blow, 11 blow, 5 draw, 8 draw and 11 draw emulate warbles between their native slide-out notes and their respective partners to the left. The magenta arrows and text boxes help to illustrate this.

The slider actions of the blow layer's holes 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9 and 10 all have the effect of transitioning between each of those slide-out notes to the next lower blues scale note.

Another possibility is to have the slider transition some of the blow notes to what--in full Richter tuning--would have been their respective blow bends or overblows.

I invite your thoughts on how to tweak this general concept.

I use a pair of half valved Paddy Richter harmonicas in a switch harp, the slider drops most notes a semitone so it is close to what you describe. There are some neat effects that can be done. Play a note, bend it, push the button but keep bending, then go back. Depending on the hole you can get a nice “push”.

See a related discussion of mine here: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=876&p=3921#p3920

A correction to the first sentence of a paragraph above:

Pushing the slider in drops each of the slide-out draw notes of holes 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9 and 10 from what would have been their respective draw-bends to the next lower blues scale note.

I think we might start seeing a lot more of these cool slide diatonic tunings now that the average-joe diatonic player is starting to warm up to these 10 hole chromatics.

I agree, and that's a great thing for progress on the harmonica

In this vein, here's another slide-diatonic tuning idea (actually two related ideas), prompted from a post by Suyash Kumar on the Facebook Harp Repair group.

He demonstrated how you could get really strong overblows by lowering the pitch of the slide-in draw reed a semitone (to the same pitch as the slide-out draw), and taping over the slide-in blow reeds. (The same principle applies in reverse for the top octave in Richter tuning, if that's what you like to play).

My friend André Coelho showed me Suyesh's demo video, which shows very pure overblows:

https://youtu.be/XNJd8k8pzBM?si=NSNFJwGTMQXjsgJx

Nice! However, hearing this made me think of an idea along the same lines that I think is better - and doesn't require any tape

It's better because it won't lose any reeds, will still give you fantastic overblows - AND will allow you to play new, beautiful bigger draw bends!

Take hole 4 as an example on a C harp. Retune the slide-in notes to D draw and B blow. Then give the blow reed zero gap, so it doesn't sound. It's now working as an X-Reed.

This way you will get a strong overblow, but also a deeper draw bend from D to C.

The overblow might not be quite as pure as with taping, but it will still be very strong and controllable - much better than with slide out.

Do the same with the other holes except hole 1, which will still need the tape. In the middle octave of C Richter, hole 5 slide-in goes down to D#, hole 6 slide-in drops to F#.

On blow breath with the correct embouchure, the slide-in notes will now work like overblows on the AsiaBend. I made a video demonstrating that a few years ago (explanation starts 2min in):

https://youtu.be/8TdkBflwKPg?si=RCE7ENXXAd5o-oh_

Instead of losing a bunch of reeds by taping them over, now you can have big bends on all your draw notes. In middle octave Richter, bends from:

D to C, F to E, A to G.

Overdraws in Richter tuning can work the same, using the same principle. Retune the slide-in blow notes holes 7-10 lower, and give them zero offset. They now function as x-reeds. This gives you strong overdraws plus deeper blow bends.

Also, since you can choose the x-reed note, you can get whatever bend you want. So on hole 7 you could tune it to A and get the bend down to Bb.

Top octave slide-in blow bends:

C to Bb, E to D, G to F, C to A

RELATED IDEA
Here's another idea along the same lines, but without the intention to get better overblows. Instead it gives you extra useful chromatic notes to play outside your home scale. It will work great on half-valved slide harmonicas also, which is my preferred setup.

Do exactly the same retune as I described above, but this time don't give the lower pitch notes zero gap: leave them active instead. In middle octave C Richter of the Trochilus, the retune of the slide-in notes would be:

Hole 4: D# down to D, C# down to B
Hole 5: F# down to F, E down to Eb/D#
Hole 6: A# down to A, G# down to F#

This way you retain the useful chromatic notes D# and F# as active reeds, but still get bigger draw bends:

D to C, F to E, A to G

For overblows, the zero gap x-reed setup is best. For easy chromatic play plus the optional bigger draw bends, this is better. Different strokes for different folks: I would choose this second option, on a half-valved slide harmonica.

(If you play Richter tuning, you can apply the same principle to the top octave in reverse, as explained above).

I first described this idea in another YouTube video from a couple of years ago. It's the end section, from 8:50:

https://youtu.be/QJV6_6tFiJQ?si=JyC4sggOWX8kFywc

This is just one of the myriad of possibilities offered by retuning chromatic harmonicas to Slide-Diatonics. As Dominick says, as more and more diatonic players try the Trochilus (which I think is just the first of many new chromatics aimed at diatonic players), many more brains will be applied on how to make best use of the new options opened up by having slider notes available, in addition to the slide-out familiar base scale.

I think we're in for an interesting new phase in the evolution of harmonica playing