Has anyone taken a C harp, cut it off after hole 6 and then added holes 1 - 4 draw of the G harp to the C harp after hole 6? This way you have the full I chord, IV chord and the V chord in the second position key of G.
Not sure what you would do with the upper blow end.
Does this even make sense to consider from a blues perspective?
Last Edited by on Apr 02, 2012 10:15 AM
I've thought about it, even started to do it a couple of times. The sheer pain-in-the-assity of that project, however, kept me from going through with it. I find it much easier to do what I do now, simply have a G harp in hand and switch to it for the full V chord. That makes more sense to me. Seydel does have a chord diatonic for $160 that is something like that. Still, I just play with two harps in my hands. ---------- David Elk River Harmonicas
If you swap the last four holes' reeds, you could do it with blu-tak on every reed except for one which you would have to raise two semitones(!) or get a reed from another harp.
Edit: (I misread and was talking about switching in both the blow and draw reeds.)
Why not do the blow 7-8-9-10 like holes 1-4 of a G harp?
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Last Edited by on Apr 02, 2012 10:41 AM
This is not a terribly different idea from the "forkord turnaround", although they way you have described it, your "blues chord" harp will have a slightly different octave range than the standard Forkord (which is made from C and Bb harp halves). The Forkord is cool for groovy vampy stuff, and for some other stuff like folk, power rock, country/bluegrass, etc.
I made one recently out of some cheap Johnson Blues Kings I had laying around. Here's what it sounds like:
Yeah I made one from two Lee Oskars--I didn't mind carving those up. It works well for chords--I always miss the big ol' V chord . . . And still bends well (as well it should) . . .
Last Edited by on Apr 02, 2012 10:25 PM
I made an axis of awesome chord harp doing a similar thing but here's what I did. (I V vi IV)
6 holes from one harp for the I and IV (second position key is the I) 4 holes from a blow V harp, retune 2 draw notes (2 and 3 draw on the small side) to get draw vi
I think I am going to do something with this concept-- My feeling is that the V of V should be a draw chord. So if we are talking about a C harmonica, draw is G(7), blow is C. The V of V is D(7), and then we get some other chord on the blow--not sure what--certainly not a diminished, the default chord for a (slide) Chordomonica. Suggestions? If I use a 14 hole, I will have enough room to leave most of a 10 hole harp intact, if not all. I am willing to modify the top end to fit lower reeds.
Last Edited by on Apr 07, 2012 10:46 AM
I would go with either Am or Em given the other chords. Just my opinion, but having layed out a lot of different combinations to try and make a mini-chord harp out of diatonic parts, I find that if you only have the triad it sounds a little weak. Having one note that is an octave (CEGC e.g.) really improves the solo sound.
@Dave: The one major advantage I've found of cutting and gluing over holding two harps is the ability to gliss between the chord changes. I also find it a bit "quicker" to slide up and blow/draw on the other half of the harp than to switch between two harps... That's likely due to my lack of practice with the two harp method. Brendan Power posted a video a few weeks back showing a Chinese player demonstrating how he switches between two tremolo harps in order to play chromatically. That guy could switch harps FAST! So it IS possible to do it, but I can't... ---------- == I S A A C ==
I'm a guitarist. There is not really room for two 10 hole diatonics in my K&M rack--I thought about the Big Six Set, but too pricey at this point. BTW, Dave, I delivered your "Hey" to Jason at the festival. He was in good spirits and played his usual inventive and creative best. He was also in good voice, and I told him so. Nice to see that he is adjusting--we all have to.
So this morning I cut down parts from Special 20s to build an 8 hole version--and it is small enough to fit into the K&M alongside a Turbo20. Guess I'll try it at the job tonight . . .
