Brendan Power & Alternative Harmonicas Forum

NAME: Playing this evoked images of old western films, hence the name "The Sad Cowboy". BASIC CONCEPT: Small harp with nearly circular tuning, tonic of E. The mix of major and minor chords is mournful. Fun to play, especially around a crackling campfire with a big pot of sofkee. WHEN/HOW: This was m...

NAME: Byrnes "Easy Backup" Six BASIC CONCEPT: A small harp to carry around and reach for when you want to back up some blues/rock/pop but not do big, soaring solos. WHEN/HOW: 2015? LAYOUT: 2017-08-11 (11).png DETAILS: This is a more sophisticated version of my "Chord Buddy" for Big Six, because its ...

NAME: PowerChrom-Plus tuning BASIC CONCEPT: There now exists a constellation of tunings which share high relatedness. Circular (thanks, Mike Photis!), Major Cross (thanks, Tony Eyers!) and several of Brendan Power's tunings (thanks, BP!) are strikingly similar in structure. This is one such variati...

NAME: Blue Dozen Slider BASIC CONCEPT: Old-time Richter plus other low chords in the left half, and then a bluesy scale with additional blue notes and enharmonics in the right half. As with my 10-hole blues tuning, I'm trying to make playing the blues easier. HOW/WHEN: July of 2017, configured by me...

I own a low Solist Pro 12, and it does buzz in channel 1 when played even moderately hard. So I had a Noble Classic configured similarly: no buzz and much louder and fuller in tone through all channels. I would switch from Solist Pros to Luckies as soon as the latter can be had in my own configurati...

Sorry, was I just salivating?

Re: "a power chord harmonica with just 1s and 5s."

There could be a b3 to the left of the 1-5 pair, and a 3 to the right of the pair. Flanking those four tones could be 7s. A power dyad and four chords within six adjacent reeds!

Shoot, now I'll be daydreaming about this all day!

NAME: I call this "Byrnes 10-Hole Blues" tuning. BASIC CONCEPT: Rethink Richter-Diatonic, to make blues more playable with without the use of so many partial draw bends, overblows, etc. WHEN/HOW: June of 2017, through Seydel's Configurator. This was a Noble Classic Low, as the first note is C3. LAY...

NAME: I call this my “Chord Buddy” tuning. BASIC CONCEPT: A tuning principally for chordal accompaniment of the myriad songs based on I – IV – V – vi progressions and rearrangements and subsets thereof (e.g. LOTS, if not most, of pop, rock, blues). WHEN/HOW: December 2015, using Seydel's Configurat...

Hello, everyone. "IaNerd" means that I am from Iowa (abbr. Ia) in the heart of the USA, and that I-am-a-nerd. My first harp was a pearwood Old Standby in 1972. Decades later I remain a novice player. However, I have developed a passion for studying and designing alternate tunings for harmonica and a...