Brendan Power & Alternative Harmonicas Forum

Lately I have been considering the possibilities of circular/spiral/helical tuning with respect to bluegrass and American folk music. I am not the first to do so; this pairing has been explored extensively by others. Since I was recently invited to sit in on a monthly circle, I started planning a Se...

When I got interested in harmonica in 1972—at the age of 7—my parents drove me to a music store 60 miles away and I purchased an Old Standby in the key of C and a book for harmonica beginners. I was fortunate then to know an accomplished guitarist with whom I could play duets. I imagine that many pe...

I see now, Brendan. When you said "Minor" in your post above, you did not mean natural minor; rather, you were referring to Dorian, which is also minor.

If we take the D Major Inverse Bebop re-tuning of the post just above ... “C”__E__G __B (The additional "Bebop" note is in quotes.) _D__F#_A __C# and give it a slide-in layer that is Slide-Up Slide Diatonic ... “D”_F#_A__C# (The additional "Bebop" note is in quotes.) _E__G__B__D then this new layer ...

In the link below, the second retuning moves a C Major Solo harp to D Major Inverted Bebop. This harp also has a G Major scale without using the slider or bending. Both of these major scales remain fully chromatic with use of the slider, whether it be sharp- or flat-slide. https://brendan-power.com/...

I hope not to muddy the water here. I found a list of about 700 Irish tunes. From this list, I ascertained the following. They are clustered and subtotaled by their parent major scales. D Major 202 E Dorian 62 A Mixolydian 22 B Minor 8 total = 294 -------- -------- G Major 190 A Dorian 69 D Mixolydi...

Triona -

Let's hope -- after Kongsheng's initial development of the KB-12 -- that offering a KB-12 Mk2 (with straight tuning) would be relatively easy.

Now let us compare the last re-tuning in the post just above with this re-tuning of a Paddy Richter Baby Fat : BLOW C E A C E G C HOLE 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 DRAW D G B D F# A B The tuning called var. 2.5a is in F major, with the first tonic available as a full bend of the 2 draw. The re-tuning shown in this...

The other day I thought that maybe I had penciled out a new tuning. When I checked Pat Missin 's catalog, I found that it was already known as Variation 2.5a of Dorian Cross . 2.5 - DORIAN CROSS BLOW C E G C E G C E G C HOLE 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 DRAW D G Bb D F A Bb D F A 2.5a - VARIATION OF 2.5 BLO...