I see that Seydel has a tuning called "circular-melody king". How does this differ from "solo tuned" ? Also I was wondering what is the difference in Harmonic Minor and Natural Minor ? Which would I use to play with a backing track that is in a key such as Dminor ? Sorry for the ignorance indicated by these questions, and let me know if such questions would be better suited for the beginners board. Thanks
My take on circular tunings is that there is no shift in breath direction. Pure circular tuning has no missing major scale notes; so a C zirk might start on C, and proceed stepwise, all the notes of the major scale, such that all blow notes are lower than the draw notes. This causes the chords to shift from draw to blow and etc, since there are only 7 notes and that's an odd number. Here is a link to a chart on overblow.com.
... and Seydel labels their circular harps (AKA Zirk, AKA Melody King) based on the blow 1 note, even though the harp's built in major scale (key) starts on draw 2.
So if you buy a Seydel Zirk "G" it will play a full two octave C scale (not G).
I have a tuning I "invented" (meaning Pat Missin hadn't heard of it) that is circular on the bottom, Richter on top. In C, starts on B blow, so the tonic is draw one. Richter kicks in at blow 5, as if it were blow 4. Here's the chart, I bet it won't line up. B D F A C E G C E G 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 C E G B D F A B D F
Oh well, you get the idea . . .
Last Edited by Gnarly on Nov 28, 2015 9:31 PM
