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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
Tuning octave harp
Tuning octave harp
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apskarp
290 posts
Jul 29, 2010
11:45 PM
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I'm wondering whether the octave harp should be tuned to Just intonation or Equal Tempered tuning..? And how that procedure should be done?
My thinking is as follows:
Octave harp is mostly made for playing chords. Although you have "octave split" done with every hole, chords can of course be achieved only by playing multiple holes together. So in this sense the Just Intonation would be the best choice. However it's not very easy job when you have to take care of the octaves too.
If you want to do that, the best way to achieve it could be to just tune the higher reedplate first as if it was the only plate you have. Then you could tune the lower plate to match with that one. The higher should be tuned first because the lower reeds tend to go flat with increased air pressure and thus you should try to make those as sharp as possible without producing the beating sound.
However, I'm not sure how well this approach works because the other reeds affect the sound also and that might mess up the Just intonation. So what I'm wondering is whether the lower reedplate should be adjusted to JI as it was the only reedplate or just try to match it to the higher reedplate..? Probably the latter as otherwise you'll get the "beating". But how well does that work remains the question?
So the problem is, I guess, should this harp be treated more like a melody playing harp or chord harp. First one would be easier to tune to as you'd just worry about the octave between plates, not the overtone series. What is the original tuning with these harps, does anybody know about that?
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barbequebob
1058 posts
Jul 30, 2010
9:52 AM
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Octave harps have always been tuned to 7LJI and if you tuned them to ET, those chords will sound horrible. When you tune JI, you not only tune to an individual note, but also how that note sounds with the other two notes in the chord and once the beating stops, your there. Same with both octaves. Tuning one plate at a time works fine.
BTW, speaking of octave harps, if you ever get your hands on a model by Hohner called the El Centennario, these were designed for playing Spanish music and instead of being one octave apart, they're actually 2 octaves apart and it's a really pretty looking instrument and they're also tuned to 7LJI.
You can do both melody as well as chording, but they were originally designed, as all Richter tuned harps were originally (the standard tuning on all diatonics) to be played in 1st position. You can bend notes, but not each note in both octaves at the same time, and like a chromatic, you gotta ease your way into it.
On part of Muddy Water's version of Crawlin' King Snake, Little Walter was actually using an octave harp on some parts of it.
The more you tune to JI, the more you get your ears trained to know what to listen for, and I've been doing that tuning for so long that I haven't used a tuner and only my ears for the last 20 years.
The main thing with the octave harps when tuning is to make sure that both plates are using the same standard pitch, be it A442 or anything elser before you get started and then once the harp is together, listen closely so that all the beating stops.
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Sincerely,
Barbeque Bob Maglinte
Boston, MA
http://www.barbequebob.com
CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
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