AW
133 posts
Sep 01, 2012
7:57 AM
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So I took a plunge on an experiment with a session steel and this tuning:
Starting with Low C
Blow series: CEAC
Draw series: DGBD
Isaac has talked about this tuning before and it is a really fun one to play. The main limitation if you want to branch out musically from the pentatonic scales is needing the double bend to get an F.
Looking at the tuning chart, I realized that if you add a turboslide, you can get a chromatic scale with this tuning fairly easily. Because each overblow is a duplicate note of the turboslide-in blow notes, there is not requirement to overblow.
Now that I've experimented with it a bit, I can say without using the slide, it works pretty well for:
Major Pentatonics in C,G,D, Minor Pentatonics in A,G,D,E
Blues scales in G, E, B
There are several other alternate pentatonics (Egyptian, etc) that I haven't tried but I'm sure there will be some good ones.
With the turboslide you can get a decent C blues scale and a great D blues scale which includes 4 Ds and the three full scales between them all with the same layout in each octave.
I'm working on the flute part for mission impossible which lays out fairly well and highlights all the parts of this harmonica, the slide notes and draw bends.
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isaacullah
2122 posts
Sep 03, 2012
3:23 PM
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Thanks for posting about this AW! For those who aren't in the know about this tuning, it's something that I came up with about a year ago*, and posted about here on MBH (here and here) and I posted the note layout and tuning notes over on jim's forum.
I developed this tuning to a) maintain some breath flow/note pattern consistency over as much of the harp as possible, b) make playing pentatonic music easier, c) maintain/enhance the ability to play modally and in multiple keys, d) not be too foreign from standard Richter playing, and e) to be able to be made from an OOTB Richter harp, without the need for "drastic" retuning strategies (such as swapping reeds).
IMO, this tuning achieves these goals very well. It's a breeze to play, still has great bends (bends on EVERY note now), still allows for standard 2nd pos blues to be played (and let's you go up an octave without changing your breath pattern too!), and opens up a lot of new playing ideas (for me, anyway).
For example, it lets you go from major pentatonic to minor pentatonic really easily in 2nd pos, and being that there is only ONE bend possible in hole three now, you can easily hit it accurately and quickly!
Here's how the two scales line up in 2nd pos.
Maj Pent: -2 -3 -4 +5 -5 (-6 -7 +8 +9)
Minor Pent: -2 -3b +4 -4 -5bb -5 (-6b +7 -7 -9 +9)
Of course there are all kinds of "natural" pentatonic scales built into the harp, that you access through position playing. For example, in 1st:
1st pos major: +1 -1 +2 -2 +3 +4 (-4 +5 -5 +6 +7)
1st pos minor: +1 +2 -2bb -2 -3 +4 (+5 - 5bb -5 -6 +7)
I really think 3rd is cool, because it gives you two "alternate" pentatonic scales (modal pentatonics):
3rd pos minorish: -1 +2 -2 +3 +4 -4 (+5 -5 +6 +7 -7)
3rd pos majorish: -1 +2 -2 +3 -3 -4 (+5 -5 +6 -6 -7)
5th position is dead easy too, and also gives you modal pentatonics:
"Egyptian" Pentatonic (exotic): +2 -2 +3 -3 +4 +5
dorian pentatonic (minorish): +2 -2 +3 +4 -4 +5
lydian pentatonic (majorish): +2 -2 +3 -3 -4 +5
And there are tons of others!
Anyway, AW's idea to add the turboslide takes it even further, now allowing full chromaticism and extra expression (bend into/out of the blow notes too) in addition to all the other abilities. I'm really interested to hear what he comes up with after he's had some time to experiment!
*Like all great ideas, I wasn't the first to come up with this idea, and I didn't invent it out of the blue. In my mind, it was a combination of the "paddy richter" and "extended richter" tunings listed on Brendan Power's website ( It also has some similarities to Lee Oskar's "Melody Maker" tuning). Turned out Brendan had (of course!) already thought about this connection, and called "extended paddy richter". My tuning differs from "extended paddy richter" in that I left the top octave unchanged, so that it is possible to re-tune a standard Richter harp, without the need to swap reeds in the top octave.
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isaacullah
2123 posts
Sep 03, 2012
3:29 PM
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Oh yeah, and I forgot to say that you also get more true octaves that are 4-hole splits (blocking two holes with the tongue). This makes it easier to play some cool octave riffs.
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=========== I S A A C ===========
View my videos on YouTube!
Check out my songs on Soundcloud!
Visit my reverb nation page!
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AW
179 posts
Sep 09, 2018
4:37 PM
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Here's the post from the past about the tuning used in the new Seydel Easy Diatonic Harmonica.
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JInx
1391 posts
Sep 10, 2018
4:59 PM
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Great piece of archiving!
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isaacullah
3272 posts
Sep 15, 2018
9:55 PM
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Nice to see this old post resurface. I'll have to dig out those modern pentatonic harps and give 'em a whirl a gain. It's been awhile!
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YouTube! Soundcloud!
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Gnarly
2546 posts
Sep 16, 2018
8:13 AM
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@isaacullah after you find them, let's get together for lunch and you can extoll the virtues!
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isaacullah
3273 posts
Sep 21, 2018
8:25 AM
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@Gnarly: That would be fun!
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YouTube! Soundcloud!
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rdmelin
1 post
Sep 22, 2018
8:31 PM
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So this is my first post here :-)
After experimenting with a few alternate tunings I too thought of this tuning, and then discovered that Brendan Power had of course thought of it already. Just discovered Isaac's posts about it sometime after seeing Seydel's EDharmonica promotional info (Thanks to Google and AW's post here.) I've been considering trying a harp with this tuning for some time, but was put off by the loss of the blow root chord. Then seeing Seydel's new harp was what moved me to order one made. For me the clincher was the Seydel choice to move the root note to blow 2 and the realization that by tuning blow 1 down a hole step I could have the I chord (or IV chord 2nd position) at +123 and still have the perks of this tuning all the way up the harp. Can't wait til my new harp arrives.
Last Edited by rdmelin on Sep 22, 2018 8:33 PM
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rdmelin
2 posts
Sep 29, 2018
7:20 AM
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This Easy Diatonic tuning is now available from Easttop.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07D6THJQ1?pf_rd_p=d1f45e03-8b73-4c9a-9beb-4819111bef9a&pf_rd_r=YPRP4ESQ6CBCKE3JKCSN
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Gnarly
2555 posts
Sep 29, 2018
10:00 AM
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And I'll sell you mine, it's a SP20.
Better get lunch with Isaac first . . .
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