Re: [Harp-L] tuning permanent blue thirds

[Winslow Yerxa <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>]

A blue third is lower than a just major third. A just major third  (about 14 cents flat relative to equal temperament) still sounds major - and very sweet as part of a major chord. 

A blue third sounds lower - almost minor but not quite. It does occur as a stable note - that is, not just as a sliding pitch. I don't know whether anyone has measured the difference in cents (or range of cents) between a typical blue third and other "benchmark' major or minor thirds (equal tempered, just, etc.).

Winslow

Winslow Yerxa

Author, Harmonica For Dummies ISBN 978-0-470-33729-5

--- On Tue, 9/16/08, David Payne <dave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
From: David Payne <dave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [Harp-L] tuning permanent blue thirds
To: "Harp L Harp L" <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tuesday, September 16, 2008, 11:31 AM

Oh.. OK.... I see what he's talking about. But wait, isn't that
basically 7-limit Just Intonation? Aren't the Es already dropped a bit? 


Dave
_________________________
Dave Payne 
www.elkriverharmonicas.com 

----- Original Message ----
From: Winslow Yerxa <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>
To: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx; hazcon <hazcon@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, September 16, 2008 2:04:31 PM
Subject: Re: [Harp-L] tuning permanent blue thirds

Listers - 

Remember, Rick is NOT talking about lowering notes by a full semitone. He's
talking about a microtonal adjustment down to a note that's somewhere
between major and minor. You don't get that by switching to a position or
tuning that has a minor third degree in the scale.

In second position, the real, important blue third - slightly flattened from
major but NOT minor - corresponds to Draw 3 and Draw 7. if you're going to
flatten any notes, those would be the ones. Of course you can bend Draw 3 down
and shade the tuning exactly the way you want, but you don't have that
option in Draw 7 unless you valve the blow reed, so it *might* make sense to
lower that one. Why not try it? It's not that hard to do, and you can always
change it back if you don't like it.

For second position,I wouldn't advise lowering any of the blow notes (Blow
2, 5, 8) to "blue" thirds, for two reasons:

1) They are not part of the second position blues scale.

2) They're likely to sound out of tune with chords played by accompanying
instruments (guitar, piano)

For first position playing, it might be worth trying. Again, it's not hard
to try out, so you could experiment and see whether you agree with me. 

Winslow

Winslow Yerxa

Author, Harmonica For Dummies ISBN 978-0-470-33729-5

--- On Mon, 9/15/08, hazcon <hazcon@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
From: hazcon <hazcon@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [Harp-L] tuning permanent blue thirds
To: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
Cc: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
Date: Monday, September 15, 2008, 7:26 PM

I am sure that im not the first one to think about this but i'd like some 
opinions on the pros and cons.
To set up (say) a C harp for purely pentonic blues in 2nd position only, 
why not drop the blow E notes down to give a permanent blue third.(not a 
whole semitone)
                Or maybe just on blow 8?
I mean the pure E seems to be basically unused right through the 1 1V V 
progressions.
Thoughts?
Rick
inNZ



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_______________________________________________
Harp-L is sponsored by SPAH, http://www.spah.org
Harp-L@xxxxxxxxxx
http://harp-l.org/mailman/listinfo/harp-l