Search found 15 matches

by oldstudent
Fri Aug 10, 2018 9:19 pm
Forum: Interesting Alternative Harmonica Ideas
Topic: Pentatonic tunings
Replies: 31
Views: 128400

Re: Pentatonic tunings

Last time, we saw that pentatonic tunings can allow you to play anywhere from one to four major keys without bending, where the number of such keys depends on how far apart the two pentatonic scales are in the circle of fifths. Let me now display layouts for the four types of pentatonic-tunings that...
by oldstudent
Fri Aug 10, 2018 2:59 pm
Forum: Interesting Alternative Harmonica Ideas
Topic: Pentatonic tunings
Replies: 31
Views: 128400

Re: Pentatonic tunings

OK, now (in part 3) we can say something about fourkey tuning. Back in 2007, Andy Newton didn't consider the possibility of repeating notes enharmonically. He implicitly assumed that each note would appear just once. But his desirable properties included a weaker version of our property #2 above: He...
by oldstudent
Fri Aug 10, 2018 1:25 pm
Forum: Interesting Alternative Harmonica Ideas
Topic: Pentatonic tunings
Replies: 31
Views: 128400

Re: Pentatonic tunings

Before I try to explain fourkey tuning, let's look again at the basic layout that I described yesterday for a 10-hole C pentabender harmonica. I started the layout at the low end with the note C as the hole-1 blow note: CD.DE.FG.GA.AB.CD.DE.FG.GA.AB The range is just under two octaves, from a low C ...
by oldstudent
Fri Aug 10, 2018 12:14 am
Forum: Interesting Alternative Harmonica Ideas
Topic: Pentatonic tunings
Replies: 31
Views: 128400

Pentatonic tunings

There is a lot to say about pentantonic tunings. These are harmonica tunings in which the blow notes form a pentatonic scale and the draw notes also form a pentatonic scale. This is the first part of a four-part introduction to pentatonic tunings. In 2007, Andy Newton discovered one important pentat...
by oldstudent
Thu Aug 09, 2018 5:31 am
Forum: Interesting Alternative Harmonica Ideas
Topic: Introduce yourself
Replies: 73
Views: 368363

Re: Introduce yourself

I greatly appreciate Brendan Power's willingness to explore many new ways of thinking about harmonicas. I agree that good ideas need careful exploration! (Indeed, this proposition is the foundation of everything in my day job as an academic professor.) After playing standard diatonic, then chromatic...