Chordomonica II with dual slide

[triona]

Upon special request I want to remind of the Hohner Chordomonica II. It is the only harmonica I know that has two slides. It was invented by Cham-Ber Huang and produced by Hohner from the 1960-es until about the 1980-es and had unfortunately been discontinued.

Nowadays an improved custom made version is available. It is built uncommercially by two German enthusiasts, one a musician and the other an engineer. They use original parts of the Hohner 270 as far as possible and available, i.e. combs, coverplates and retuned reedplates. Unfortunately Hohner even had destroyed or lost the tools for the original dual slide system. So they had to re-engineer and mill it once again from the scratch. Therefore the new Chordomonica II meanwhile costs more than 400 € (= about 450 $). And therefore it is only built by request.

Here is a review in English by Pat Missin:
https://www.patmissin.com/ffaq/q31.html

The new model has a slightly changed note layout to the original like documented by Pat Missin. It has added two more holes (= 8 notes) on the left instead of the 2 holes on the top. So it is beginning with G3 instead of C4. It is the known orchestra tuning which is a fourth lower than the traditional standard tuning.

And to overcome with a common error:
The Chordomonica II is no chromatic harmonica.
It is a diatonic harmonica with extended possibilities to play chords for chordal self accompaniment.

Here is an extensive thread in German. At least the layout charts and the charts of the playable chords and the links to sound samples are understandable without knowledge of the language:
https://www.harpforum.de/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=13483

Here are the direct links to the layout charts:
https://www.harpforum.de/phpbb/viewtopi ... 60#p118660
And here are all playable chords added:
https://www.harpforum.de/phpbb/viewtopi ... 21#p120521
(Click on the thumbs to enlarge pics.)


And here are some pictures of my Chordomonicas:








The parts of the dual slide system:






Comparison old model original Hohner vs. new model:
The harmonica with the sqare holes is the old one. That with the round holes is the new one. The new model has not longer the cranked second slider. It has a flat level.






Both slides out:
The upper reedplate is active.






Slide I (= main slide) in:
The bottom reedplate is active for playing chords different from those playable on the upper reedplate.





If slide I is pushed, slide II is in automatically.
It is taken along by the edge of the knob of slide I (see the green arrow).




Only slide II in:
Slide I is remaining out.
A selection of reeds of the upper and of the bottom reedplate is active to create more chords different from those playable on the upper or bottom reedplate alone.





I hope the pictures are clearly to recognize. I have no professional camera and no professional light, and neither I can make a good freehand picture with my left hand when pushing the slide buttons with my right hand.


Here are some sound samples with the Chordomonica II:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bjV4XpOZ3E
It is me at the Seydel harmonica competition in Klingenthal, 14.09.2018;
playing with Roger Wade's Houserockers;
title: It's Later Than You Think, by Roy Milton, 1950;
played on Hohner Chordomonica II in C (2. Position).

Scholastically the slides are operated by the index (slide I) and by the middle finger (slide II). I have learned it autodidactically. I do it differently. I use only the thumb for both of the slides - the crook between the thumb limbs for slide I and the flat of the top limb for slide II.

I have found out that my thumb technique allows much more speed at trills and other fast chord changes. If I tilt the whole thumb and combine this movement with a repeating deviation of the thumb joints, i can push and release both of the slides simultaneously with very high speed and a broad variety of different combinations of movement and direction, synchronously or reversely.

Incidentally the video has been taken from the left. So the operation of the slides is not really visible. But at 2:55 one can see for a short moment how my thumb is dancing up and down on the slides behind my hand for the final trills of the song.


And here a short solo on a session:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhgkjCXNzlI
title: Let the Good Times Roll,
my Solo beginning at ca 1:50 until 2:30,
played on HOHNER Chordomonica II in E (1. Position).


And here are some nice samples by 2 friends of mine who can play much better than me:
Lili Marlene by Duo Klangspiel
I guess the song is known in US and UK as well.
https://on.soundcloud.com/gSWTa

Nun ruhen alle Wälder, composition by J.S.Bach, played by Duo Klangspiel;
transcription and arrangement by Olaf Marwinski / Duo Klangspiel:
https://on.soundcloud.com/EiYDH
Both played on Chordomonica II in E and Bluesharp in LLE.

And some christmas carols (playlist):
https://on.soundcloud.com/xgxDr


dear greetings
triona

[triona]

... the Hohner Chordomonica II. It is the only harmonica I know that has two slides. ...

... concerning serial products by traditional mainstream manufacturers. Of course there are furthermore prototypes, small series and unique custom harmonicas by Brendan, like i.e. the microtonal harmonica he built for Roni Eytan or his famous double chrom:
https://brendan-power.com/discontinued- ... uble-chrom
https://brendan-power.com/discontinued- ... uartertone

Btw: Forelast weekend I had the opportunity to listen to a concert by Roni Eytan, where he played it. The following day Roni performed a workshop, intentionally about how to exercise systematically. In the beginning of this workshop he asked the participants whether they had special questions to him. The first question was about those microtonal harmonicas. (You might guess who it was asking this question. ) And several of the other participants were interested especially in this as well.

And he seemed to be really astonished about the great interest in those microtonal harmonicas. So he explained and demonstrated them and how to use them in middle eastern music. And he played 2 more maqams for this special audience, one with Brendan's custom harmonica and one with excessive microtonal bending on a normal chromatic.

The only thing I was astonished about was his apparent astonishment about the special interest of a lot of harmonica players in those instruments and how to play them - with him beeing the only one owning such an unique harmonica and beeing the only one able to play it.


dear greetings
triona

[Brendan]

Thanks Triona for your excellent, in-depth explanation with photos and extra links of the Hohner Chordomonica II. I've long been an admirer of the many innovative harmonica ideas of the designer Chamber Huang, and this is one of his best

[triona]

I've long been an admirer of the many innovative harmonica ideas of the designer Chamber Huang, and this is one of his best

I do not wonder about your admiration of CBH's ideas.
And it is my opinion as well that the Chordomonica is one of his best.
It is a real pity - or more clearly said: a real shame - how Hohner neglected the uniqueness and the superior properties of this harmonica. They never did pursue a proper marketing of this product. There actually had been intern quarrels within the management of Hohner about the priorities in business policy.

The conservative line which was eventually "sucessful" blocked the marketing of the Chordomonica. They feared that this chord wonder could cut down the sales of normal diatonic harmonicas, chord harmonicas or anything else of their standard programme. And they might have considered the Chordomonica a niche product with little expectations for substantial mass production as well. Thus they dried out the marketing for the Chordomonica latently and most probably intentionally.

This seems to be the fate of ingenious niche products in major companies all the time and all over the world. Another ingenious invention of CBH hit the same fate: It was the CBH 2016 - a 16/64 chromatic featuring an innovative slide technology:
http://www.chamberhuang.com/cbh2016.html
This has presumably lead to the break between Hohner and CBF, who founded an own production of the CBH furthermore.

BTW: The latter idea might be interesting for some of the innovators here in the forum. I do not know whether this Delrin by DuPont could be a suitable material for 3-D-printing of harmonica parts and especially parts of innovative slide systems. But it possibly is worthwile to check this.


dear greetings
triona