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From: sk~te.com (Rod Thomas/Sandra Teare)
Date: Tue, 10 Dec 1996 19:57:38 -0500 (EST)
Subject: Re: Country tuning Question

Hey Harpers,
I got questions for all you music theory aces.

1) Does it make sense that they raise the "7th" in hole 5 draw, but not in
hole 9 draw in the "Country Tuned" harps?

2) Is there any advantage to leaving hole 9 draw unaltered on these harps?

I wonder if they don't bother to mess with hole 9 cause lots of harp
players don't spend too much time on the very top end of the harp anyway.
(The folks who originaly raised the pitch in hole 5 by hand probably didn't
want to screw around with any more reeds than necessary). But now that
Hohner is producing country tuned harps for us, why not change hole 9 along
with hole 5? If you have a song that requires a full major scale, what's
the advantage of having only one major scale with the next higher scale on
the harp a mixolydian scale?

I know what some of you may be thinking...(Yo Rod!... If you're so hot
for a harp with hole 5 draw AND hole 9 draw raised a half step, why don't
you pick up a Melody Maker!) Well, I picked up a few way back, and frankly
I don't like the altered hole 3 blow. I don't want to have to memorize an
unusual blow-draw pattern just so I can play what I wanna play on a certain
song that fits a MM. I'd rather draw bend to get that sixth step (of the
first position scale). I'm used to draw bending for it and I have a good
ear for pitch.

I've been using Hohner's Country tuned harps more and more, and in a
couple of songs so far, I've wished that the hole 9 draw note had also been
raised. I'm starting to wonder if I should go ahead and make the
alteration myself on all the country tuned harps I own. I'm also
considering altering my Melody Makers back into the standard Country
tuning. Any reason why I shouldn't do this?

Thanks,
Rod

- --
Rod Thomas email: sk~te.com