Suggested re-tuning for the Hohner PentaHarp
Posted: Wed Nov 24, 2021 6:09 pm
I ordered four Hohner PentaHarps and have given them a short trial. One quick niggle: PentaHarp is a misnomer. This tuning is a repeating minor hexatonic blues scale. Obviously I was not invited to the focus group. Another niggle: Hohner claims that every draw note is bendable. Well, sort of. The draw bend in holes 2, 5 and 8 drops by about half of a semitone. Not super useful, imo.
Here I will discuss this tuning in context of a Gmin harp.
First and foremost I am absolutely unnerved by the lack of a bend from D to C#. I understand that the philosophy of this tuning is to make such bends unnecessary. But to my mind this is THE bend that makes the blues scale so bluesy.
I also miss the major I and IV chords on the low end. This tuning has some interesting dyads and loads of double stops, but no usable triads let alone dom7 chords.
The re-tuning below is my suggested remedy for both of these issues. I will probably try it out on either my Gmin or Amin harp.
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Here I will discuss this tuning in context of a Gmin harp.
First and foremost I am absolutely unnerved by the lack of a bend from D to C#. I understand that the philosophy of this tuning is to make such bends unnecessary. But to my mind this is THE bend that makes the blues scale so bluesy.
I also miss the major I and IV chords on the low end. This tuning has some interesting dyads and loads of double stops, but no usable triads let alone dom7 chords.
The re-tuning below is my suggested remedy for both of these issues. I will probably try it out on either my Gmin or Amin harp.
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