I just got my first tuning lesson from a local guy who is going to show me how to customize. When we were tuning a reed, we found out that my embouchure produces a note about 5 cents flatter than he does. These were blow notes and the draw notes weren't active. Anyone else see something like this?
definitely. it used to mess me up when i started tuning and realised how 'relative' tuning a harmonica is. Jimi Lee demonstrated to me how i could make a reed play up to 20 cents higher just by changing my embouchure when he was helping me develop vibrato
Breath force, can flatten the pitch too! And the lower reeds are more susceptible to flattening than higher notes. If you want and octave split to sound perfect you need to tune the lower note a few cents higher. You can always play the octave split with very light or very hard breath of you want the wet sound of beating octaves. Or you can tune the individual notes closer to perfect and only get perfect octaves with low breath. It depends who you are tuning for.
As far as embouchure, the two draw is tricky. It's hard for many players to hit it without bending it a few cents (so do you tune it a little sharp for them?). It also has to have the exact same pitch as the three blow, and it's the tonic of the draw 12345 chord (so it can't be out of tune!)
Tricky.
There are times I have to stop tuning and do something else. When I am tired or otherwise losing focus, I end up working against myself and it's just best to quit and come back to it. Tuning takes a lot of focus. It's precision work for your mouth, ears and hands.
Needless to say, you can't just tune the reeds so they match the numbers on a tuner and expect it to work out.
Tuning for your customary embouchure is part of customizing a harmonica. Some players flatten pitch so much that their harps are tuned very sharp to compensate, as high as A446. I've heard this in regard to both Stevie Wonder and Leo Diamond (a chromatic player with a thick, dark sound who had a pop hit with Offshore in 1953 and pioneered both multi-track recording and concept albums in the 1950s, well before Brian Wilson or the Beatles.
