Brendan Power & Alternative Harmonicas Forum

The upper half of this tuning is from "Wilde Rock" tuning by Will Wilde (shown here: http://www.brendan-power.com/forum/view ... t=10#p1478 ).

The lower half adds a V chord with two options for dominant sevenths.

http://www.brendan-power.com/forum/down ... iew&id=410

In my post of October 21 (above) I said that: "grafting Super-Circular to Pentabender in a 10-hole format is a near-miss, because it fails to create a C-to-C major diatonic octave. One more channel is needed to get the upper C."

I return to that particular tuning, now, with a detailed diagram plus a table of the chord progressions that it could play ....

http://www.brendan-power.com/forum/down ... iew&id=414

http://www.brendan-power.com/forum/down ... iew&id=412

In my post of October 21 (above) I proposed a grafting of Super-Circular and Power Chromatic. Here I represent that once again--this time in the key of C major. The diagram below is directly compatible with the table of chord progressions that appears in the post just above this.

This combination solves the problem of fitting a tuning of this type into a 10-hole format. It has the additional advantage of having two banks of four channels each (i.e. 3-6, and 7-10) be identical in their note patterns.

The resultant tuning is almost fully chromatic. When playing only simple blows, draws and draw-bends, it lacks the G#/Ab note in two places. However, those notes are achievable with overblows of channels 4 and 8.

http://www.brendan-power.com/forum/down ... iew&id=422

I have noticed that the table posted on Mon Dec 24, 2018 11:52 am (above) shows that this particular key of Super-Circular excels chordally in the song keys of Cmajor and Fmajor. For melodic play that tuning can make the Cmajor diatonic scale without bends ... but what about the Fmajor diatonic scale?

In the diagram below, we see the original "core" of Super-Circular from the 1 blow to the 6 draw. But here I have extended it to the left by one channel, in order to begin an Fmajor diatonic scale with no bends.

In a 10-hole format, this change would not allow the uppermost octave to be in PowerChromatic, so I had to choose a more compact tuning. One unit of Solo tuning fills this need. However, in the context of a longer harmonica, PowerChromatic, Pentabender and some other tunings become possibilities for this uppermost octave.

Fmajor diatonic scale without bends: "0" draw to 4 blow, plus one note below and two notes above.
Cmajor diatonic scale without bends: 2 draw to 9 blow, plus one note above.
Aminor diatonic scale without bends: 5 blow to 8 draw, plus five notes below and two notes above.

ADDENDUM, JANUARY 30, 2019: Changing the E3 (below) to an Eb3 would give us an Ebmaj chord, which is probably far more useful than the Edim shown.

download/file.php?mode=view&id=423

Take a good look at the chordal area of the tuning posted above on Tue Dec 25, 2018 1:41 pm.

Now imagine this as being one layer in a slide harp. Most slide harps are tuned so that the button-press either raises or lowers each note by either one (typically) or two (more rarely) semitones.

But what if the button-press raises each note by FOUR semitones?

When applied to the tuning of December 25, we get the tuning below.

Note that its chordal possibilities are extended greatly ... and with a highly useful and complementary new set of chords.

download/file.php?mode=view&id=421

See also this: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=274&p=1873#p1873

Recently I have considered the scenario in which a person gets a harmonica and proceeds to learn songs without any instruction whatsoever. I imagine that most people would figure out some chords--even without knowing what they are--and also single-note melodic play. I doubt though that most people would bend notes to arrive at "hidden" notes.

In this post I pair Super-Circular with an upper octave that contains some highly useful accidentals among the simple blows and draws. This upper end is fully chromatic with simple draw-bends, and nearly chromatic without them. In choosing which accidentals to place in the blow and draw layers, I prioritized those three which are part of the minor hexatonic blues scale.

Note that this tuning requires at least eleven channels to complete the upper scale.

download/file.php?mode=view&id=432

Here I will list the major and minor diatonic scales that can be played--without any bends--using the tuning of Sun Jan 06, 2019 3:22 pm, shown above.

C major scale: From 2 draw to 11 blow (two octaves), plus three more contiguous notes after this.

A minor scale: From 5 blow to 9 draw (one octave), plus five more contiguous notes before this and five more contiguous notes after this.

G major scale: From 4 draw to 9 blow (one octave), plus six more contiguous notes after this.

E minor scale: From 7 draw to 12 draw (one octave), plus four more contiguous notes before this and four more contiguous notes after this.