A family of new modded-Richter tunings

Anything apart from the two mainstream default harmonicas (Solo-tuned fully-valved chromatic, and un-valved Richter 10-hole diatonic). Alternate tunings, different construction, new functionality, interesting old designs, wishful-thinking... whatever!
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IaNerd
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Re: A family of new modded-Richter tunings

Post by IaNerd » Mon Oct 22, 2018 4:24 pm

Response to EdvinW and invitation to everyone:

When talk turns to minor chord progressions of the natural, harmonic and melodic types, I am getting out of my depth.

I encourage others to weigh in on the minor key capabilities (chordal and melodic) of the Super-Circular/PowerChromatic tuning posted above on Sun Oct 21, 2018. For the sake of clarity and simplicity, I strongly encourage folks to refer to the tuning in its current configuration, i.e. starting with G on the 1 blow reed and ending with D on the 10 draw. Please do not transpose it.

When referring to chords according to Roman numerals, please also specify what chord that would be in the context of the configuration shown and the point you are making. For example, do not simply say “the i chord”; please do specify whether “the i chord” means A minor, or E minor, etc. in the context of your analysis.

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Re: A family of new modded-Richter tunings

Post by IaNerd » Tue Oct 23, 2018 6:38 pm

I have discovered that the Super-Circular/PowerChromatic tuning posted above on Sun Oct 21, 2018 has strong harmonic (left side) and melodic (right side) capabilities in the key of A minor natural ....

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Re: A family of new modded-Richter tunings

Post by IaNerd » Tue Oct 23, 2018 7:25 pm

Here is the Super-Circular/PowerChromatic tuning in seven common keys.

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Re: A family of new modded-Richter tunings

Post by IaNerd » Wed Oct 24, 2018 6:08 pm

All evidence indicates that Super-Circular/PowerChromatic is a very capable tuning—harmonically and melodically—for myriad songs in both major keys and natural minor keys.

But what about bluesy tunes, where the major I, IV and V chords are overlain by a minor hexatonic scale whose tonic is equal to the root of the I chord? Taking the tuning “as-is”, I see one obvious approach. I will consider it in the song key of G.

Starting with the “Gmaj/Emin” key shown above, we have the I chord being Gmaj, the IV being Cmaj, and the V being Dmaj. For the minor hexatonic blues scale, we need to draw-bend to get the Bb, the C# and even the F. That’s doable, but probably slow and clumsy.

At this time I feel that, for something like Super-Circular/PowerChromatic to be a more dedicated blues machine, some modifications to the tuning are in order. Consider the following ....

Step 1: Start with the six channels of the Super-Circular/PowerChromatic tuning, just as they are shown in the post above from Sep 26, 2018 11:51 am: DFACEG/EGBDF#A.
Step 2: Chop off the first channel, leaving these five channels: FACEG/GBDF#A.
Step 3: Add five channels of Bbmaj/Gmin PowerChromatic, i.e. BbCEbGBb/CDFAC.

We now have the following:

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Re: A family of new modded-Richter tunings

Post by IaNerd » Thu Oct 25, 2018 10:39 pm

In this post I compare the tuning from just above to a tuning that differs by only one channel.

WHICH WOULD YOU CHOOSE?

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Re: A family of new modded-Richter tunings

Post by IaNerd » Fri Oct 26, 2018 6:40 pm

In my post of Wed Oct 24, 2018 12:08 pm (above), I indicated that I was very pleased with Super-Circular/PowerChromatic for general major and minor diatonic play. I then set out to devise a more specialized bluesy version of that tuning. I see now that some of what I did to that end was incorrect. Now I will try to point out the errors, and devise a solution.

In that post I referred to the seventh chords that would be made for the G major diatonic scale. I should not have done this. Rather, I should have focused my attention on the three critical chords of the blues, i.e. the I, the IV and the V (in this case, the Gmaj, the Cmaj and the Dmaj). And I should have made every effort to create dominant seventh versions of those chords, rather than consider their seventh chord forms from the standpoint of a diatonic scale. This is because dominant seventh chords are a part of the signature sound of blues music.

In the case of the V chord (the Dmaj), I got that right because its seventh chord variant is already dominant in the diatonic scale sense. That was fortuitous.

In the case of the IV chord, my analysis on October 24 suggested that my C-E-G-Bb chord was wrong, but the chord was actually correct as-is. The analysis was faulty. The IV chord in that tuning was of the dominant form—just as it should have been.

But one problem remains. The seventh variant of the Gmaj chord of that tuning was G-B-D-F#. This would be correct in the diatonic sense, but not correct in the blues sense. To be a bluesy dominant seventh, it should read G-B-D-F. However, that F# needs to remain as it is to create a proper Dmaj chord. Therein lies a problem.

Here is my workaround ...

Step 1: Chop off channel 10.
Step 2: Place a new “channel zero” to the left of channel 1. This new channel will be D for blow and F for draw.

So now holes “0”-3 draw give us the dominant seventh form of our I chord, though in an inverted form: F-G-B-D. As a bonus, we have added a D minor chord plus its dominant seventh form (D-F-A-C).

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Re: A family of new modded-Richter tunings

Post by IaNerd » Sat Oct 27, 2018 6:07 pm

Regarding the tuning of Fri Oct 26, 2018 12:40 pm (just above) ....

Here is how low it can be, according to Seydel's Configurator. This example would play in the "song key" of Low C.

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Re: A family of new modded-Richter tunings

Post by IaNerd » Tue Oct 30, 2018 6:00 pm

Throughout this thread, all of the I – IV – V tunings have shared this basic structure: IV chord(s) in the blow layer, and I chord(s) followed by V chords in the draw layer. But another arrangement also has merit: a V chord followed by IV chord(s) in the blow layer, and a I chord followed by another V chord(s) in the draw layer.

One way to achieve this other type of tuning is shown below. In the blow layer we have the V and its dominant seventh note, which becomes the IV chord and its dominant seventh note. In the draw layer we have the I chord which is preceded by its dominant seventh note. This I chord becomes an additional V chord which is followed by its dominant seventh note.

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Re: A family of new modded-Richter tunings

Post by IaNerd » Tue Oct 30, 2018 6:12 pm

Here is different example of the type of tuning described in the post just above. In this version we gain an additional IV chord (preceded by its dominant seventh note) in the blow layer, and also an additional V chord (preceded by its dominant seventh note) in the draw layer.

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Re: A family of new modded-Richter tunings

Post by IaNerd » Sun Nov 04, 2018 6:27 pm

For this tuning:

Step 1: Start with the tuning just above.
Step 2: Chop off channel 10.
Step 3: Add a new channel preceding the others, with C blow and D draw.

An additional dominant seventh note is gained for the V chord in the blow layer.

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