source file: mills2.txt Date: Sun, 7 Jul 1996 16:07:26 -0700 Subject: TUNING THE HARMONICA From: Pat Missin As a new subscriber to the tunings list, I guess I'd better introduce myself. My name is Pat Missin and I play several instruments, but my main weapon is the humble harmonica, or rather many different harmonicas, which I play in a variety of traditional and avant guarde styles. For the last ten years or so, I have also worked on the repair and modification (mostly of my own harps, for reasons of poverty and their ever-increasing price), but I also service them for other people. Most of my instruments are diatonic and I set them up in just, or slightly tempered tuning, but some of them pose a few problems. Like the harmonium that Helmholtz et al, used for their experiments, the harmonica produces very strong combinational tones, some of which can sound quite unpleasant, even on a well tuned harp. These tones are often unbearable on an equal tempered harmonica, such as the standard chromatic instrument. For those of you who do not know, the chromatic harmonica is based around repeating groups of four holes, each with a blow note and a draw note. The blow notes in each group are C, E, G, C and the draw notes are D, F, A, B. When a button is pressed, another set of reeds is brought into play, tuned a semitone above the first set, allowing a complete chromatic scale. (Actually there are a few duplicated notes in each octave E# as well as F; B# as well as C, but in equal temperament, these are to all intents and purposes F and C.) The blow notes seem to cry out for a just major triad (on C and C#), but the draw chord poses a bit more of a problem. D, F, A and B tuned as a G7 without a root, sounds great as a full chord in the key of C, but the septimal seventh causes the individual intervals to sound horrible in, for example, the key of F. When the chromaatic is played in many different keys, I guess equal is an obvious choice, but many players (Irish folk players, for example) use it as a modal instrument, using the semitone button for ornamentations, but sticking to a few closely related keys (in the case of Irish music on a C harmonica, the favored modes would be C ionian, G ionian and mixolydian, D aeolian and dorian). The presence of the notes D, F and A in the draw chord suggest that it should be tuned towards D minor or F major. I've tried various meantone ideas, but I wondered if any of you out there have any other suggestions (other than "buy a synthesiser..."). Also, if you play all the notes on a C chromatic, you get the folowing sequence: C, C#, D, D#, E, E#, F, F#, G, G#, A, A#, B, B#, C and C#; the next octave starting again from C. That's sixteen notes to the octave - this must suggest some ideas to someone out there - please let me know. Pat Missin. Received: from eartha.mills.edu [144.91.3.20] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Mon, 8 Jul 1996 07:49 +0100 Received: from by eartha.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) for id WAA12559; Sun, 7 Jul 1996 22:49:44 -0700 Date: Sun, 7 Jul 1996 22:49:44 -0700 Message-Id: <01I6T9SX43KI8YG49L@delphi.com> Errors-To: madole@ella.mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu