Re: [Harp-L] The Forkord Turnaround VS harmonicaMD chord harmonica

[Arnold Cazemier <a.cazemier@xxxxxx>]

John,


Many thanks for your kind words about my idea. I had to look up the
meaning of the word 'uncanny', and indeed it's kind of mysterious how we
came up with the idea of getting two lower halves of bluesharps together
at about the same time. To be honest I froze for a moment when I talked
about my idea with Mr. Becher from Seydel Germany last year. He mentioned
that there was an American doctor who had the same idea as I, but after
the comma, when he told that you had the halves side by side, I was
reassured because in my view the position of the halves 'opposing'  each
other had some neat possibilities. I didn't think of those before I put
the Forkord Turnaround together. For me it was the only way to get the two
halves together into one harp in a simple way.

It's very nice to read how focused you were in your idea that the medical
harp should have three chords. And how you achieved it by making a serious
study of musical theory. I think we all know the two harmonica- trick of
Orange Blossom Special where Charlie McCoy uses a Bb-flat and an F harp.
That gives three chords, but of course the F chord is double, and further
on, a very nice quality of both our inventions is the fact that the
voicings of the chords are nicely close, I think the corresponding octaves
sound very nice, (there are examples in my YouTube).

What you tell about the considarable limitation of composing music for the
Richter tuned harmonica, I 've always also felt that way a bit. It' s a
fine instrument, and it has sweet chords, but when accompanying other
musicians, or music on the radio, you 're always missing at least one
chord.

It's funny to see how you were searching for a diatonic harmonica with
more than two chords, while I sort of coincidentally stumbled over this
possibility when accompanying a song that modulated from F to G...
http://www.forkord-turnaround.com/history.html

I think you 're doing fantastic work to let people with breathing and/or
lung problems use music and the harmonica for benifical use. I believe in
that too.


I wish you all the best,


Arnold




Op Fri, 04 Nov 2011 01:53:23 -0400 schreef J Schaman:

>I would like to congratulate Arnold Cazemier regarding his ingenious idea.
>He has put a whole new meaning into ³cut and paste".  There is an uncanny
>similarity between the Forkord Turnaround and the harmonicaMD "Medical"
>chord harmonica. A number of individuals brought the harp-l posting to my
>attention.
>
>For those interested, I can address the ³why" and ³how" my harmonica came to
>be. Working in the field of rehabilitation medicine for over 35 years, I was
>aware that there was not a specific, dedicated device or method known to
>improve or enhance pulmonary function. Furthermore, scientific evidence
>showed lung function decline with ageing was excessive (data revealed that
>it is a statistical norm in our population to lose 50% of lung function
>between the ages of 30 and 70).  With a suggestion that harmonica playing
>improved lung function and possibly even longevity, I embarked on a study to
>prove or disprove this hypothesis.  The Harmonica Exercise for Lung Program
>(H.E.L.P.) commenced in November 2007, primarily as a ³dose­response" study.
>More details are available on the website: ( http://www.harmonicaMD.com/ ).
>
>When we started we really didn't know what we were doing other than just
>³playing the harmonica". I soon realized that normal playing by beginners
>didn't challenge the lungs in a way that would achieve any significant
>therapeutic effects or benefits, at least in our ambulatory population.
>Initially we really weren't even sure what we were trying to achieve. As
>time went on, we designed two main ³effects" that would make sense to
>achieve physiological and possibly anatomical benefits. These 2 effects
>were:
>1. Work the lungs above and below the comfort zone (approximately the middle
>25 to 30% of lung excursion) with forced and prolonged drawing and blowing,
>such as when doing ³long tones" and, with prolonged holding of chords with a
>method I have termed ³chordal jamming". This must be done to at the very
>least a slight sensation of  ³discomfort".
>2. Strengthening the muscles of respiration, which is not normally done with
>any other exercise that I know of, including sprinting and marathon running.
>This is best achieved with the ³rhythmic chordal exercises" on the website.
>There are 4 different exercises with 8 speeds from 80 beats per minute to
>220 bpm. This is all found under the ³program" heading and navigating to the
>³advanced program". Again, this must be performed to a feeling of
>³discomfort".
>Unfortunately, we found those methods that provided appropriate
>physiological challenge largely lacked musicality. The development of
>³chordal jamming" restored significant musicality, however, because on a
>Richter tuned diatonic harmonica there are really only 2 chords plus the
>dominant 7th of the draw chord (on a key of C diatonic ­ C, G, G7), there is
>a considerable limitation in composing music to play along with. I was given
>the opportunity to design and develop a harmonica that would more adequately
>suit our purposes.
>
>It now became quite clear to me I made a bad decision as a youngster when I
>chose football over music lessons! As I crammed music theory, I learned that
>with the availability of 3 chords much more interesting music can be
>composed than with only 2 chords. I learned that use of the I, IV, V chords
>of a given key resulted in a particularly useful and pleasing combination.
>So, my initial goal was to design a harmonica that played the I, IV, V
>chords. I also thought that it would be exceptionally useful to have the
>major chords as well as the dominant 7th chords.
>
>Regarding my design of the ³medical harmonica", I essentially wanted to have
>2 small 5 hole diatonic harmonicas, side-by-side, with a space between. In
>order to achieve the I, IV, V chord pattern, I knew that drawing would
>achieve the I chord and blowing the IV chord. The only missing chord was the
>V chord. I wanted the overall size of this harmonica to be the same size as
>a standard diatonic harmonica. I then chose the lowF key as the 1st
>harmonica primarily because lower pitched harmonicas sound better with
>chording and they use somewhat more air to help with the pulmonary
>challenge.  I didn't want to go too low because ³bending" would be more
>difficult.  I wanted to maintain the ability to play this ³chord harmonica"
>diatonically, in other words, with single notes. This would allow more
>advanced players to play ³bass lines" interspersed with the chords.  I
>thought the lowF key was a good compromise. In this way the draw chord would
>be the I chord, which on this harmonica would be Cmaj. That would leave the
>blow chord as the IV chord (F). The only chord missing was the G (V chord).
>I could have put this on the blow or the draw of the 2nd small harmonica. It
>made most sense to put the G chord on the blow, which would make the 2nd
>harmonica a key of G harmonica. That made a lot of sense to me as the four
>chords would be: F C G D, which is the precise progression of the ³circle of
>fifths".
>
>The next challenge was to create the possibility of playing the dominant 7th
>of all 4 of these chords. The draw chords already had the dominant 7th on
>the 5 draw and the 10 draw. I tuned the 5 blow and 10 blow reeds down 6
>semitones to achieve the flat 7th. I actually have 2 versions of the medical
>chord harmonica: one, with the 5 blow and 10 blow reeds left in the Richter
>tuning and the 2nd with the 5 blow and 10 blow reeds tuned as I have
>described to give the dominant 7ths. The 1st option is more useful for
>playing melodies and really anything that can be played on the 1st 5 holes
>of a diatonic Richter tuned harmonica. The 2nd option, the main one we now
>use in the medical program, plays the dominant sevenths. After all, for the
>medical program the primary requirement is to have a chord harmonica. The
>chords available are: F, F7, C, C7, G, G7, D, D7, allowing the I, IV, V
>chord pattern to be played in actually 2 keys, C and G!  (Although our
>'production' harmonica for the medical program uses the lowF-G combination,
>I have made several other keys including lowC-D and A-B, which may in the
>future be available by special order)
>
>As the previous harp-l posts indicated I have not had a mechanism on my
>website for purchasing the medical chord harmonica. This is presently being
>rectified and I expect a PayPal mechanism will be available in the next few
>days.
>
>Thank you.
>John
>
>