I've been playing with Paddy Richter for a little over 12 months. Mainly 1st and 4th Pos. I've now got 4 harps I've tuned to Paddy. Playing 2nd pos blues is possible but 3 draw now only gives a semitone bend. It does however, give me an easy shuffle over the IV chord. So my question is not what do I gain, but am I losing too much using Paddy in 2nd pos?
Last Edited by on Jan 04, 2013 7:02 AM
Having a clean tone (and intonation) for the major second of the scale can be advantageous, especially if you're not an intermediate or advanced player - although I find that I have fewer vibrato options on blow notes. Losing the 3 draw triple bend isn't a big loss imo, except if you want to play "Don't Get Around Much Anymore", say.
For third position it's a disadvantage to lose the 3 draw triple bend as it's a blue note, though I find that's a challenging one to use!
So I think it's a good option in 2nd position for major key melodic songs where you want a major seventh scale tone
Last Edited by on Jan 05, 2013 2:36 AM
Hi, two questions; what is Paddy Richter and what do you mean by "easy shuffle over the VI"? ---------- Sun, sun, sun Burn, burn, burn Soon, soon, soon Moon, moon, moon
If the Key was G, the IV (oops, just seen my error) would be C, and it's shuffle would be GG, AA, BbBb, AA -2-2, 33, -3b-3b, 33 Paddy Richter raises Blow 3 up a tone.
Gerry - I was thinking that you meant that you could play the VI (minor) easy - 3 blow 4 blow 5 blow would give you A C E on a C harp with Paddy Richter. You also have Am7 with the 6 blow
I sat down for a couple days once trying to figure out what would be the best minor tuning for retuning the the fewest reeds - the 1847 was only available in major tunings. I came up with tuning the three blow up one step. Then, I had a complete minor scale (A minor on the C harp). I was very proud of it, until I realized it had already been invented and was Paddy Richter - the only difference was this was a different application. what you gain for blues with Paddy Richter is 4th position. Here's an example. It's on an XB-40 that I paddified. I'm not crazy about the tone of that harp, but it's the only recording I've got of blues in 4th. When you're playing at the harmonica club and everybody is playing in 5th, it really stands out when you are playing in 4th.
Here's one in fourth on a paddy with a harp that has better tone. My C B-radical, for a while was tuned Paddy. Here you can hear what all the double-stops sound like. The 3-6 blow double stop is cool, as it is an A with the flatted 7th. You can also hear the Am chord and, at the very end, that Am7 chord.
---------- David
____________________ At the time of his birth, it was widely accepted that no one man could play that much music so well or raise that much hell. He proved them all wrong. R.I.P. H. Cecil Payne
I like that Elk River Blues song. I live on the Elk River too, but a different state. ---------- Wisdom does not always come with old age. Sometimes old age arrives alone.
I think some of the posters here are confusing Paddy Richter (3 blow tuned up two semitones) with Country Tuning (5 draw tuned semitone sharp). Both are variants of the Richter layout, so it's easy to get confused, but they are very different. With Country Tuning you loose the standard 2-5 draw double stop, and you need to bend 5 draw to get theflatted seventh used in Blues. With Paddy Richter you can still play single-note blues licks the same as with normal Richter, but you do loose the 3-6 blow octave (the 3 draw three-step bed, and the note that was the old 3 draw double bend is now 3-blow, so you don't loose that in single note playing). The only other thing is that the low-end blow chord is now a partial 6th chord, which does not sound bluesy in any way shape or form. But you can play the 1-2 blow double stop, and it still sounds pretty much like a full chord.
Personally, I find myself playing a variant of Paddy Richter that I independently thought up, but which is the same as the "Extended Paddy Richter" that Brendan Power invented. Basically, the Paddy Richter pattern in holes 1-3 are repeated right up the harp. This gives several advantages: no change of breath or bending pattern in any octave (similar to spiral tuning logics), good deep bends on every draw hole (similar to Powerbender tuning logic), expanded and extended two-hole split octave range (unique to this tuning), interesting double stops (also unique), and (IMO, most important) two "built in" no-bend pentatonic scales (one in first, and one in second position) that can easily be played modally. With bending, and one overblow (5 hole), this tuning becomes almost completely chromatic in the middle octave, and so many different scales can be played in several positions. For this reason, I call this tuning layout the "Modern Pentatonic" tuning. I can play all styles of music with this one tuning, including Blues, Rock, Folk, Country, Reggae, Jazz, International, etc.
Paddy Richter can be great for Blues, especially if you want to jazz it up a bit. You can hear some Paddy Richter blues licks in cross harp here (4:58 on):
Paddy Richter Extended (PR low octave all up the harp) is also very cool, as Isaacullah says. I've got a beautiful Richard Sleigh Marine Band in low Eb in this tuning that he made for me in the late 90s, and have made a few others myself. It's a lot of fun!
@Gamblershand: A harp with raised 3 blow a tone and 5 draw a semitone is in Melody Maker tuning. It's commercially released under the Lee Oskar brand. As you note, it's a combination of Paddy Richter and Country, and is an excellent tuning as well.
Last Edited by on Jan 05, 2013 12:51 AM
Playing along with some backing tracks I've found that Paddy certainly works best with the more jazzy or swing type blues. I'm assuming it's having the maj2/dom9th note available. This tuning has completely reignited my love of playing harmonica after so many years away. I just wondered whether I was giving up too much but I guess not.
The Melody Maker Tuning is a combination of the Paddy Richter and Country Tuning... a quick way to get a Paddy Richter harp and a Country Tuned harp without retuning the reeds, is (using Lee Oskar harps and harp key designations) is to get say a "C" regular (major) richter tuned harp, and a "G" LO Melody Maker and switch the top reed plates.
Last Edited by on Jan 05, 2013 10:33 AM
Over Christmas, I enjoyed playing my Paddy Richter tuned harps to play some Christmas songs... like "Mary Did You Know", and then I would alternate with "O Come O Come Emmanuel"... great for that minor sound !
I prefer the regular Richter Tuned harps for blues... but I won't rule it out if I find something that soungds good !
What isaaccullah is talking about, the "extended" paddy Richter tuning. what exactly goes into this. are their any threads on how to, I was unable to find one. paddy Richter sounds very interesting to me, seeing as 2 draw and 3 blow are the same, and I assume chords aren't bad either, as its all good. how hard is it to tune this way? ---------- my youtube
@AirMojo Thanks for tip - finally, I can get pure Paddy in a Lee Oskar package. Should have thought of that...
@isaacullah I like using those major pentatonics over blues. If you can wrestle a harp break into a major pentatonic, and then bring it on home - well, that's my favorite. And it's nice to use 3 blow for something!
Here it is - my Paddy Lee Oskar. Took the top reed plate off of my G Melody Maker and put it on top of my C Major Diatonic. Also took off the top cover plate and put it on my C because it's engraved by Lee. So, Lee Oskar engraved Paddy Richter!
How does that sound duke? Can you make a video of you jamming on it? how close is this to actual prt?(paddy Richter tuning) I feel like using that 3 blow for something else is just a better way to go. what's the downsides to prt harp? ---------- my youtube
@KB I'll try and post a video. The only difference between this harp and a regular C harp is now the 3 hole blow is A instead of G. This is handy for major scales, but not life changing.
For some reason, I use the 3 hole blow A note more on descending runs - probably because I am used to skipping it completely on ascending runs.
Also, I only play single note, mostly in 2nd position. Because I don't play chords, I don't have to worry about screwing up the note placement on the harp.
Last Edited by DukeBerryman on Apr 10, 2014 9:31 AM
It's good to see Paddy Richter being used by Blues players. I'd love to hear some clips of what others are doing with it.
These days I tend to use a variation I call "Paddy Solo" for Irish music. As the name implies, it's a blend of Paddy Richter and Solo tuning. The bottom 7 holes are the same as PR, but the blow note on hole 7 repeats in hole 8, to give you the same scale in the top octave as you have in the middle octave (blow note to the left):
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 CD EG AB CD EF GA CB CD EF GA
Isacullah mentioned another of my variations, "Paddy Richter Extended" As he says, this is a great cross-harp wailing tuning! It's very intuitive as all the draw notes bend, and it repeats in all octaves so you can move the same licks all over the range:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 CD EG AB CD EG AB CD EG AB CD
Lots of fun!
You can also raise the 3 blow a tone in other tunings, like PowerBender. That's pretty tasty too:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 CD EG AB CD DE FG AB CD EG AC
Last Edited by Brendan Power on Apr 10, 2014 10:46 AM
@Kentucky_Blues: Before I discovered that Brendan had already invented the tuning, I was calling it 'Modern Pentatonic" tuning. If you search the archives here, you can find a couple of thread on it, including some discussion of how to retune a standard richter harp to this tuning. My variation leaves the top octave (holes 8-9) in standard tuning, mainly because it's a pain to retune those notes to this "extended" version (you need to remove all the reeds, switch the blow and draw reeds, and then retune them). BTW, the same "extended" idea can be applied to the "normal" richter tuning, where you just repeat the breath pattern from holes 1-3 all the way up the harp (this is called "Richter Extended" tuning). Alternatively, you can do the same with the breath pattern from holes 4-6 of a normal richter harp (this is called "Easy Third" tuning). I play A LOT of music on my "Modern Pentatonic/Extended Paddy Richter" and my "Easy Third" harps. I love both of these tunings for improvising melodies. Because the breath patterns don't change as you move up the harp, you have a really wonderful freedom to move. It's so intuitive and easy!
@Duke: Hear, hear! Long live the pentatonic scale!!! :) ----------
Well I have a few harps with multiple in the aamenjey, I'm going to figure out if I can make this happen. I'll post vids if I can figure it out (tuning) thanks for the responses on a somewhat old thread. pretty excited to see others also do the whole different tuning ideas. makes the harp a whole new game ---------- my youtube
Last Edited by on Jan 04, 2013 11:08 AM
