Spiral, then Dmin/Cmaj
Posted: Tue Feb 20, 2024 5:19 pm
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 Seydel Configurator order of various keys of Big Sixes, with this general tuning pattern:
The tuning above can be played very easily with full octaves of: G mixolydian; A aeolian; C ionian, and D dorian. It also contains all seven chords of the parent scale of C major. (This pattern was Seydel's Harmonica of the Month for April of 2015.)
Then I a had a couple of thoughts related to this pattern. First, I have noticed that when I play in aeolian mode, I often want/need the three notes just below the tonic. The pattern above has only one of these notes. Second, I thought about the utility of double-stops. A regular spiral tuning does not allow for these.
So I started thinking in terms of 10-hole harps. I shifted the pattern above to the right by two holes, and I added two holes to the right of all of those. I came up with this:
download/file.php?mode=view&id=883 The tuning above can be played very easily with full octaves of: G mixolydian; A aeolian; C ionian, and D dorian. It also contains all seven chords of the parent scale of C major. And as a new feature, it has five notes below the aeolian tonic of A and four notes below the mixolydian tonic of G. And it has every double-stop (except for B), starting with the draw notes of C. Note that in the upper half of the harp, B notes are attainable with partial draw-bends of the C notes.
One way of considering this tuning is that it is entirely spiral, but transitioning from major diatonic into major hexatonic.
At the moment my intention is to order these in the parent scales of G major, A major, C major , D major and F major . Before I commit to an order of harps like this, I invite your thoughts.
Since I was recently invited to sit in on a monthly circle, I started planning a Seydel Configurator order of various keys of Big Sixes, with this general tuning pattern:
The tuning above can be played very easily with full octaves of: G mixolydian; A aeolian; C ionian, and D dorian. It also contains all seven chords of the parent scale of C major. (This pattern was Seydel's Harmonica of the Month for April of 2015.)
Then I a had a couple of thoughts related to this pattern. First, I have noticed that when I play in aeolian mode, I often want/need the three notes just below the tonic. The pattern above has only one of these notes. Second, I thought about the utility of double-stops. A regular spiral tuning does not allow for these.
So I started thinking in terms of 10-hole harps. I shifted the pattern above to the right by two holes, and I added two holes to the right of all of those. I came up with this:
download/file.php?mode=view&id=883 The tuning above can be played very easily with full octaves of: G mixolydian; A aeolian; C ionian, and D dorian. It also contains all seven chords of the parent scale of C major. And as a new feature, it has five notes below the aeolian tonic of A and four notes below the mixolydian tonic of G. And it has every double-stop (except for B), starting with the draw notes of C. Note that in the upper half of the harp, B notes are attainable with partial draw-bends of the C notes.
One way of considering this tuning is that it is entirely spiral, but transitioning from major diatonic into major hexatonic.
At the moment my intention is to order these in the parent scales of G major, A major, C major , D major and F major . Before I commit to an order of harps like this, I invite your thoughts.