Brendan Power & Alternative Harmonicas Forum

"I / IV Melody Mix" is a crude working title.

I'm trying to blend strong I and IV chords with an easy-playing and expressive (with draw-bends on every tonic, 3rd, 5th and 7th) major diatonic scale. It has some of elements of MelodyMaker and Will Wilde Tuning in there. A minimum of 11 holes are needed to complete the second octave, so this might be a good tuning for Seydel's 12-hole Solist Pro.

Note: Changing the 7 and 11 blows to G would complete the two Cmaj chords. The trade-off would be the loss of the draw-bends in the 7 and 11 draw tonics.

CORRECTION: This tuning also contains multiple iii chords.

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Truncated to just seven holes, this tuning would be lovely in a Kongsheng Baby Fat.

CORRECTION: This tuning also contains a iii chord.

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For the Kongsheng Baby Fat, I like this one even more.

Notice that after the first five notes it is essentially Circular/Spiral/Helical Tuning.

Also, from 1 draw to 6 blow this is equal to EDHarmonica (ie. Extended Paddy Richter).

Also, with competent draw-bending one can create complete lower-octave scales of both G major diatonic and G minor hexatonic.

ADDENDUM 18Sept2019: I just noticed that holes 2 through 7 of this tuning are equal to holes 1 through 6 of Melody Maker.

ADDENDUM 17Dec2019: Re-tuning hole 7 to a "regular breath pattern" is difficult. If you can manage it, you retain the IV and V chords in the last three holes. However, from a re-tuning standpoint it is easier to keep the breath pattern of hole 7 reversed. The table of re-tunings (below) shows the resultant 7 blow being higher than the 7 draw. This is the easier method, but the top chords are disrupted.

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Compare the tuning above with this: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=684&p=2946#p2945

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

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=612&p=2619#p2619

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.

In an addendum to the post of Tue Sep 03, 2019 4:05 pm (above) I noticed that I had generated a tuning with six holes identical to Lee Oskar's Melody Maker. In the diagram below, I show the rest of Melody Maker, along with my own small addition at the beginning.

To be clear, holes 1 though 10 in the diagram below are exactly Melody Maker. The changes I make are to:
(1) Add a new "hole zero" at the beginning.
(2) Delete Melody Maker's hole ten.

The disadvantage to this MM variant is that a little bit of melodic range is lost on the upper end. However, there still remain two full major diatonic octaves with no required bending.

The advantage is that we now have--in the first three holes--a IV chord in line with the I chord. Therefore, a player can inhale/exhale chug away on I-and-IV (e.g. pop/rock) or on I-and-ii (e.g. reggae).

I don't yet know if this variant of Melody Maker is new. Please PM me any related information.


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This comment was deleted by the OP.

I recently studied Jason Ricci’s Youtube video entitled “How to play harmonica like a Rock Star (The Mixolydian Mode, John Popper & More)”. This made me see that the tuning of Tue Sep 03, 2019 4:05 pm (above) can be adjusted for mixolydian play.

Indeed, this variation is equal to a Paddy Richter tuning that has been truncated by four holes on the right end and enhanced with one new hole on the left end. We see exactly the same notes in the third-through-ninth holes of Brendan Power’s (Double-)Paddy Richter Lucky 13.

NOTE: That flat-seventh in 6 draw was already attainable as a simple draw bend in the tuning of Tue Sep 03, 2019 4:05 pm. This alteration just makes getting that flat-seventh easier and quicker. Additionally, this changes the major V chord to a minor v chord, and the minor iii chord becomes diminished -- which might or might not be desireable, depending on the situation.

CORRECTION, January 30, 2020: The last re-tuning in the chart below is mislabeled.

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Addendum, February 1, 2020: I now see that the tunings above are cousins to eleventh position standard Richter, where an A harp would be used to play in the key of G.

Can the new re-tuning of Tue Sep 03, 2019 4:05 pm (above) be adjusted to produce a Natural Minor instrument? Yes, absolutely! In fact, the transition involves the alteration of only six reeds, as opposed to eleven. The five reeds which no longer require re-tuning are shown in blue.

REMINDER: If starting with a Country-tuned Baby Fat, the 5 draw is already at its correct pitch.

CORRECTION:. The first re-tuning below should say "D-1 = C#".

WARNING: Raising the 7 draw by two semitones is difficult. I am currently researching how best to do this.

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