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From: "Jonathan Ross"
Date: Sun, 18 Jan 1998 17:23:09 -0500
Subject: Re: Solo tuned diatonics

Um, Winslow, um, I was wondering about this:

But on most
> instruments - including chromatic harmonica - you keep the tuning
> and just change the notes that differ from the C scale. For F
> major, you change B to Bb, for Bb, change E to Eb as well. For G,
> change F to F#, and for D, change C to C# as well. And so on.

So, I take it that if I was to order a Chrom in, say, D it's tuning would
be as follows:

Blow: C# E G C# C# E G C# C# E G C#
Draw: D F# A B D F# A B D F# A B

Personally, this is far more strange to me, as the internal note to note
relationship is completely rearranged. Some notes, like the 1draw, 2blow,
3blow, 4draw and 5draw remain the same as on a C harp, while the 1blow,
2draw, 4&5blow would be different. I'm not saying that this might not be
usefull, it's just that I have never heard this before, and had allways
assumed that the tuning would just be transferred to another base key, with
all of the internal note-to-note relationship intact:

Blow: D F# A D D F# A D D F# A D
Draw: E G B C# E G B C# E G B C#

Just wondering which is the case:)

Personally, I'd vote for the latter as the standard, as it allows you to
retain all of the well learner positions--sorry Robert:) but it is usefull
in this instance--whereas the layout which you described would require a
whole new set of scales and arpegios to be learned when changing from one
harp to the next--quite a lot of memorizing:(

This having been said, it would actually make sense to me if the layout for
a D or G chrom was as you described. The reason for this is that these are
not very popular, and the awkwardness of having to completely alter
familiar technique could explain this unnusual--at least to me--lack of
interest in non-C chroms.


JRR
CANNIS COCKER MAXIMUS SNUFFY
HRMNCAE BSILEUS BSLEI NSTRMNTATI

BTW, I own a set of Huang trems in C and C#, and I like them very much
indeed:) They come highly recommended for both their tone and
playability:) Not to mention the price:)