Regular Scottish Tuning

Anything apart from the two mainstream default harmonicas (Solo-tuned fully-valved chromatic, and un-valved Richter 10-hole diatonic). Alternate tunings, different construction, new functionality, interesting old designs, wishful-thinking... whatever!
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Brendan
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Regular Scottish Tuning

Post by Brendan » Tue Dec 24, 2019 12:27 pm

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.

Check out the tuning charts below. The tuning Ron asked for is at the top. Similar to Richter, the breathing pattern reverses in the upper octave. This would have been difficult to retune from a standard Lucky 13, but I saw that if I made the tuning into a regular repeating pattern it could be made from a Lucky 13 in G Solo tuning. Strictly speaking my Lucky 13s in Solo are in Solo-Orchestra tuning, since they dip down to the fifth below the tonic (as on a 14-hole chromatic).

Ron was happy for me to go ahead, so I made the altered Regular Scottish Tuning. After the retune I played it a little, and found that it ticked a lot of boxes in terms of what I look for in useful alternate tunings. It has draw notes above the blow in every hole, and every draw can be bent a semitone. Like PowerChromatic and Solo tuning it gets the regular pattern by having 8 notes in the scale - but instead of repeating a note as they do, it adds a new and useful note. It's pretty damn nifty, actually!

Scottish Lucky 13.jpg
Scottish Lucky 13.jpg (80.95 KiB) Viewed 20523 times

CrawfordEs
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Re: Regular Scottish Tuning

Post by CrawfordEs » Tue Dec 24, 2019 2:12 pm

Neat.
It looks like it might be really good for flute and whistle tunes.
The F# / G#. G/A pair of holes looks like it might be confusing. Did you find it difficult to maneuver?

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triona
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Re: Regular Scottish Tuning

Post by triona » Tue Dec 24, 2019 2:57 pm

Aha, looks interesting.
And has a little bit from this tuning of one of my Seydel Samplers, at least considering the function:

Image

I got the idea from Donald Black, who comes from Scotland indeed. He uses the tuning on a turn around tremolo from Hohner ("Highlander", a special tuning on a Hohner Echo, now discontinued, http://www.patmissin.com/reviews/highlander.html ).

The double diatonic sampler has one of your Lucky's advantages too: You must not turn around the harmonica. And you can chose and change between the modes by slide. And if you play trills by the slide, you stay within the mode, for both modes contain the same notes. And you can play easily quick jumps in forths and fifths, like f.expl. common in Baroque music. I like it very much.

Here a sample:
https://soundcloud.com/triona-966519605 ... rock-teil2
Please excuse the poor sound quality. It was recorded by smart phone in the back of a festival tent. I am glad that the one who did it sent it to me.

The advantage of your Lucky is, that you can play the A major as well without a bend.


dear greetings
triona
Last edited by triona on Tue Dec 24, 2019 9:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Aw, Thou beloved, do hearken to the Banshee's lonely croon!
sinn féin - ça ira !
Cad é sin do'n té sin nach mbaineann sin dó


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IaNerd
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Re: Regular Scottish Tuning

Post by IaNerd » Tue Dec 24, 2019 5:34 pm

The Regular Scottish tuning is the same as Inverted Bebop, which I presented here: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=612#p2619 I checked with Brendan about this and he agrees.

EdvinW
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Re: Regular Scottish Tuning

Post by EdvinW » Tue Dec 24, 2019 5:44 pm

IaNerd wrote:
Tue Dec 24, 2019 5:34 pm
The Regular Scottish tuning is the same as Inverted Bebop, which I presented here: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=612#p2619 I checked with Brendan about this and he agrees.
I just wrote a post saying precisely this, that we've seen this before, but you got there before me :) It does seem a nice tuning though!
Edvin Wedin

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IaNerd
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Re: Regular Scottish Tuning

Post by IaNerd » Tue Dec 24, 2019 5:48 pm

:D :!:

CrawfordEs
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Re: Regular Scottish Tuning

Post by CrawfordEs » Tue Dec 24, 2019 11:17 pm

I think it differs on holes two and three.

EdvinW
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Re: Regular Scottish Tuning

Post by EdvinW » Wed Dec 25, 2019 8:21 am

CrawfordEs wrote:
Tue Dec 24, 2019 11:17 pm
I think it differs on holes two and three.
In a way you're right, the tables for the two tunings are not the same, but one can be obtained by shifting. If you remove the bottom two holes of one of the tunings you get the other, and in that way they are related in the same way as Solo tuning and Orchestra tuning.

In both tunings, Inverted Bebop and the "Regular Scottish", the blow notes increase as major third, minor third, major third, minor second, repeat.

It's fairly common to refer to such pairs as "the same tuning". One example is Brendan's "Paddy Solo" harps: The bottom end looks like a Paddy Richter, while the top doesn't strictly look like it would if the harp would be solo tuned, but is in fact shifted.

I maintain they should be considered the same tuning, but you could make a case for either position.
Edvin Wedin

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Brendan
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Re: Regular Scottish Tuning

Post by Brendan » Wed Dec 25, 2019 10:34 am

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 Inverted Bebop was published. Quite a coincidence!

I'm surprised, after I made Ron's tuning into a regular repeating pattern, that I didn't realise this was Patrick's Inverted Bebop starting in a different place. I think the different harp with no slider and the way the tuning is written masked its identity.

But it definitely is Inverted Bebop, which apparently is good for Scottish music! Looking forward to hearing it being used in that style before too long.

Ron Taylor
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Re: Regular Scottish Tuning

Post by Ron Taylor » Wed Dec 25, 2019 11:19 am

For those of us playing tremolo. .If.. you look at the top end. You have 'almost similar' to Asian 21 hole layout, without the Right hand shift on the draw notes.
Last edited by Ron Taylor on Wed Dec 25, 2019 11:33 am, edited 1 time in total.

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