Brendan Power & Alternative Harmonicas Forum

Compare the tuning at the beginning of this Topic with this one:

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=616&p=2642#p2642

Note that the only difference is in the blow note that shares a hole with the draw note tonic. One solution gives more scales, while the other gives more useful chords.

This calls to mind those recently developed magnet-based mechanisms for altering the pitch of specific reeds.

Note: On a 12-hole slide chromatic harp, the final tonic C is there with the push of a button. Also, the 2 blow slide-in could raise the C to a D in order to complete the lowest Cmaj octave.

CORRECTION: This tuning also has multiple ii chords.

ADDENDUM: I now see that, with the slide in, it is possible to additionally have V and vi chords in the lowest octave.

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The tuning just above here was designed with diatonic scales in mind. However, with the I (Cmaj) and IV (Fmaj) chords, a first position minor hexatonic blues scale of C - Eb - F - Gb - G - Bb - C looks quite feasible.

In the tuning of Thu Sep 05, 2019 10:12 am (above), the first major diatonic octave begins a little bit differently than do the higher octaves.

Here is a different approach to getting a IV chord at the front of Inverted Bebop tuning in an economical way. The advantage here is that all the major diatonic octaves share an identical breath pattern; there are no special cases. A peculiarity of this tuning, though, is that the first three chambers have an inverted breath pattern, which makes simple draw bends in those chambers impossible.

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Here is a variation on the theme just above. This one has a consistently normal breath pattern throughout.

This tuning would be good for 7-hole, 12-hole, 13-hole, 14-hole and 16-hole harps. Not so good for 6-hole and 10-hole harps.

Note that the first three chambers contain I and IV chords--just where one would be accustomed to having them in standard Richter tuning. They are however inversions of those otherwise familiar chords.

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I received Patrick's kind gift of a Kongsheng Lyra to test out his Inverted Bebop Tuning. It's now retuned to D/G, which only required a few semitone shifts in each octave from Solo C. I'll explore a bit and report back soon

I did a short video test of a slider chromatic version of Patrick's Inverted Bebop Tuning. Using the Kongsheng Lyra he kindly donated for the test, I tuned it from Solo C to Inverted Bebop D/G, which is not a big change in terms of notes. Here's the scale:

Here's the video test:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ZvbT6 ... f00d6ptXvV

Bravo! Thank you very much!

This is the re-tuning scheme that Brendan used just above. The slide-in layer contains the same notes but one semitone higher.

In a 12-hole slide chromatic Solo harp, a total of 18 (out of 48) reeds must be re-tuned.

If one started with a Bb major Solo harp, the result would be the popular and versatile C major key.

download/file.php?mode=view&id=634

Note that in the tuning below, the tonics of the slide-out layer have been moved from the 1, 5 and 9 draws to the 3, 7 and 11 draws.

ADDENDUM, Jan. 13, 2020: Please note that, by using the slider, a complete Ionian scale can be played from 1 blow to 3 draw. Also note that, in the slide-in layer, the first three holes are equal to Paddy, a.k.a. EDharmonica. This means that, in this layer, draw bends can be employed to play a complete C major scale or the beginnings of D dorian, E phrygian, F lydian, G mixolydian, G major, or A minor scales.

See also: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=663#p2880