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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
Roger Myerson's PentaBender tuning
Roger Myerson's PentaBender tuning
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Gnarly
1213 posts
Jan 15, 2015
12:55 PM
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Roger Myerson has devised a variation of the Newton Fourkey that turns out to also be a derivative of Brendan Power's Power Chromatic tuning.
I would surprised if Bren has not come up with it on his own! But I heard about it from Roger, and here is a recap.
The tuning has two pentatonic scales, a whole step apart, with blow being lower than draw, and a half step bend on each hole. There are three enharmonics in each octave, and no accidentals.
So in the key of C, the pattern is |C d | D e | F g | G a | A b |
The two pentatonics are F and G, so that the draw position is much like second position.
But the tuning is fully chromatic with draw bends.
This is just like Power Chromatic, which is F6/G6, except with the added hole, you can draw bend the b6.
More to the point, since the draw chord (it's a pentatonic scale, but you get my drift) is the dominant, there are strong similarities to cross harp, which is what most of the harmonica players I encounter employ to play the harmonica.
Expect a video soon--oops, NAMM is next week, expect a video by spring thaw LOL
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isaacullah
2916 posts
Jan 16, 2015
10:21 AM
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This looks like a cool tuning system, Gary. As I explore the possibilities of various alternative tuning systems, I more and more am becoming enamored of those that have only half step bends. They seem to just sound better for certain music styles. I'll look forward to the video!
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Gnarly
2000 posts
Nov 17, 2016
3:22 PM
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I decided to add to this thread, rather than start a new one.
I just retuned a ProMaster I found in my stash, which was tuned very strangely--Gm/Am on the bottom, G7/A6 on the top--so I decided to repurpose it.
The plates were originally in Low F, it is now a Pentabender in E, starting on B3, going up to B5--here's the tuning.
|B C# | C# d# | E f# | F# g# | A b |B C# | C# d# | E f# | F# g# | A b |
So it's a full two octaves, and begins and ends on the tonic of the draw key (I would call it A/B), which is Mixolydian.
I should do a video, perhaps tonight.
Edit: Looks like I have done a handful of videos on this tuning.
Further note: I put it in this key for playing rack harp, since E is a good key for guitar. But the range of this harp is pretty optimal--granted it is only two octaves, every song I know is less than that.
Last Edited by Gnarly on Nov 17, 2016 3:28 PM
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Gnarly
2001 posts
Nov 17, 2016
9:00 PM
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As promised, another video on this tuning, this time using the one I just carved.
It's a blues!.
Last Edited by Gnarly on Nov 19, 2016 6:53 PM
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