Brendan Power & Alternative Harmonicas Forum

rishio wrote: ↑Wed Jan 02, 2019 4:59 pm Hey Edvin, I think I understand your thoughts but not sure. Here are mine. I like to use the full harmonica from hole 1 - hole 10. A G-Key harp is the lowest I can go and still control the low end bends of the harmonica, and A-harp would be the highest I'd like to go without getting too screechy at the top. At most I can get up to a C key, I think, but then the high-end gets too sharp for my taste, and difficult to control those bends. I guess I like the lower-keyed harmonicas. G, Ab, and A are my favorite ranges. Db, for example, is too high for me. I wanted to get all keys with my favorite keyed harps, and the overlapping of the G and A works to my advantage because it gives me different ways to play some popular keys. (not all keys are used equally!)

Diatonic Scales: With the G Harp, I can technically play full diatonic scales: G, D, A and C. But in reality I only really use diatonic scales C and G and don't practice the others. With the A harp: A, E, B and D. With an Ab: Ab, Eb, Bb and Db.

Pentatonic Scales: These are the scales I mainly practice and use for jamming: G Harp gives me: G, D, A, C, and F(and the relative minors). A-Harp gives me: A, E, B, D and G (and the relative minors). Ab gives me: Ab, Eb, Bb, Db, and Gb (and the relative minors). So basically with the G, Ab and A harps, I get all 12 keys (or technically 24 if you count minor keys) with the 3 harps.

Yes, I can play 10 different positions (5 Maj, 5 Min) on each harp by using 5 patterns. 2 of the 5 patterns require no bends, 2 of the 5 pattern require 1 bend per octave, the final pattern requires 2 bends per octave. (Add one more bend per octave for blues scale for SLOT 2, 3 and 11). I am sorry if this sounds really confusing!! But one thing I'd like to say is that I love bends. I don't want too many, but a few bends in my jams gives the harmonic a bit of a saxophone sound that I like. Playing with no bends sounds a little to clinical for my taste.

e  g  b  e  g  b  e  g  b  e
1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9 10
f# a  d  f# a  d  f# a  d  f#

eb g  c  eb g  c  eb g  c  eb
1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9 10
f  bb d  f  bb d  f  bb d  f

d# g# b  d# g# b  d# g# b  d#
1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9 10
f# a# c# f# a# c# f# a# c# f#

This is where our preference is different. I can get all 12 keys with 3 harmonicas with other tunings, like powerbender. But I do like having 3 Octaves available, and having a few bends don't bother me. I could get all 12 keys with one 10-hole harp, and keep 3 octaves if I used augmented - but that gets to be too much bending to get commonly used notes and doesn't have some of the other nice things that I like with ED. For me, ED is the right balance of things that I want in a tuning. It's not for everyone though. I love it that different people are using different tunings. It make for even more uniqueness between different Harmonica players!

rishio wrote: ↑Thu Jan 03, 2019 12:57 am It’s an interesting idea, but I don’t like the idea of the note shifting with every different key of harp. I feel like I’d have to make that mental adjutment everytime I switch harps and remember things such as where my root notes are in each key which feels which like it would be more of a mental burden. For example, on a G harp, I know that my Maj/Min root notes are in holes 2B,5B,8b/1B,4B,7B,10B, playing the G in the ley of D would make it 3B,6B,9B/3D,6D,9D, playing it in A would make it 2D,5D,8D/1D,4D,7D,10D etc.. this no longer holds each time i switch harp keys.. I also don’t want the hole 1 Blow to go below E - that is already stretching the limit of how low I want to go. I like the traditional way of keeping all the note layout in different keys the same so that, whether I use 3 harps keys or 12, I can play all the keys exactly the same way. I’m curious as to what tunings you play?

c e g b d f a c e g
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
d f a c e g b d f a

c e a c e g c e g c
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
d g b d f a b d f a