Brendan Power & Alternative Harmonicas Forum

Suzuki natural minor tuning gives you a natural minor scale in first position. This is how they come from the factory in Japan, though for awhile the US service rep was re-tuning them to play Aeolian in second position instead, as this is what most players expect.

The Magic Harp patent details about 20 different Magic Harp tunings, but you have to learn how to read Dick and Pierre's diagrams (Richard Salwitz and Pierre Beauregard, the two inventors). Dates from about 1993 and can be found with a little digging on the USPTO website. Sorry if you found my descr...

Some accordions have both a tremolo reed detuned slightly from the main reed (usually tuned higher) and reeds that play an octave lower or higher than the main reed (or both). Building a three-reed-per-note harmonica is a bit of a challenge, though, so the practical solution is to take an octave har...

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Having notes below the range of the fiddle does make sense so that you can get *below* the fiddle to accompany. I sometimes do this using a Low D. On chromatic, I have retuned a Low E chromatic so that it's in the key of B with F# as the lowest note. This way common keys plays as slide-in keys, whic...

As long as we're talking about pentatonic tunings, without trying to accomplish anything other than a pentatonic scale, there's the Magic Harp tuning that Pierre Beauregard and Rickard Salwitz patented back in 1993: EG. AC. DE. GA. CD. EG. AC. DE. GA. CD. This achieves the objective of having the dr...

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This is a variation on spiral tuning, except that the spiral doesn't start until Hole 4.

For me, half valving makes tone inconsistent between valved and non-valved reeds. So for me, a half-valved chromatic would only come into play when the sound of dual-reed bends is more important than consistent tonal quality. Which for me is rare; I can bend farther on a valved reed than on dual-ree...

I see ramps - those raised floors on the chambers On higher pitches, a large chamber can drag pitch down if its resonant frequency is lower than that of the reed. Ramps also reduce the air required to fill the chamber before it starts moving the reed, allowing for quicker response and less breath re...