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From: Winslow Yerxa <76450.32~ompuServe.COM>
Date: 30 Nov 96 22:45:23 EST
Subject: 1-hole Chromatic

TO: internet:harp~arply.com

Pat Missin writes of the

Bandmaster 1-hole chromatic.

A well kept secret long overdue for outing. Shall I tell them the
whole story, Pat, now that you've spilled the beans? (Pat and I
often bump into one another following up obscure paths in the far
reaches of the harmonica world.) Oh what the hell, this is too
strange not to share with the world.

The Bandmaster 1-hole chromatic harmonica has only four reeds,
yet covers a fully chromatic range of close to three octaves, and
has an unusual, though extremely short and quick slide movement.
The tuning is:

Draw Slide A
Draw D
Blow Slide G
Blow C

Each reed being tuned a perfect fifth above the last, starting
with the C reed as the lowest note.

So where are all the missing notes? Well, for starters, an
extremely airtight design using only one reedplate, coupled with
a double slide action (where do you think Cham-Ber Huang got the
double-slide idea for his Chordomonica II?) allows for the
elimination of valves. (Actually, technically, this harmonica has
more than one hole inside the mouthpiece, as it needed some width
to allow the player to hold it comfortably. This also allowed for
the unique slide design. But the player only has one hole to
actually breathe into.) So all the notes can be played as both
opening and closing reeds:

Closing Opening
Draw Slide A Bb
Draw D Eb
Blow Slide G Ab
Blow C Db

Of course all the closing reeds can be bent down in pitch:

Clos Open
Draw Slide A \ Bb
Draw D \ \Eb
Blow Slide G \ \Ab
Blow C \ \Db
\
\
\?

While all the opening reeds can be bent up in pitch (read right
to left):
?
\
\
Draw Slide A\ \ Bb
Draw D\ \ Eb
Blow Slide G\ \ Ab
Blow C \ Db

While the C closing reed could bend down to around G, and the Bb
opening reed (A closing) could bend up to around Eb, the
remaining reeds were limited in bending range by their hole
partners (for instance, G closing bent down only to Db, the
opening pitch of the C blow reed). The outermost reeds in the row
- - blow C and draw A - were not affected for design reasons too
complicated to go into here - suffice it to say that the idea of
valves in the cell walls is far from new). For this reason, some
players specialized in playing either extremely high passages on
the upper A reed or extremely low passages on the lower C reed,
and local bandmasters wrote passages especially to take advantage
of such players in their town bands.

Shockingly, the inventor had never heard of Mike Curtis
(remember, this was a long time ago in a deep, obscure part of
the Black Forest, on the Swiss side of the border, where he had
fled from Eastern Germany after the war) and, at the time of his
death, was working on a three-part slide movement to allow wider
bending range for the two "inside" reeds.

Pat, would you say that's a fair summation of the Doktor's
invention?

Winslow Yerxa
Harmonica Information Press
Z
Z