[Harp-L] Hohner 48 Chord

[karen mass <kdmass7@xxxxxxxxx>]

From: Paul Weber <peweber573@xxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [Harp-L] Hohner 48 Chord

Hello there,

I'm a diatonic player who's now finding myself playing chord harmonica with
an acoustic trio. I have searched the internet and I can't find any
information about techniques, tuning, split chords or really anything. This
is my tuning- a rare tuning dating back to the 30's and has since been
updated. Anyone know where I can find some educational materials?

Top Deck Blow  | Ab  | Db   | Gb  | B    | E    | A    | D   | G    | C  |
F   | Bb  | Eb   |  Major chords
             Draw  |Eb7 |Ab7   | Db7| Gb7 | B7  | E7   | A7 | D7  | G7 | C7
| F7  | Bb7  |  Dominant 7ths

Low Deck Blow  |Abm |Dbm |Gbm |Bm   |Em   | Am  |Dm |Gm   |Cm  |Fm |Bbm
|Ebm  |  Minor chords
             Draw    |Eb+  |Ab-7|Db+ |Gb-7 |E+   | E-7  |A+ |D-7  |G+  |C-7
|Eb+ |Bb-7 |  Aug.+/dim.-

Thanks,

Paul Weber

Hi Paul,

You indeed have an old style chord as played by al fiore of the harmonicats
and other greats.

if you look on ebay you can find a book written by al smith called the
chuggers manual.  as far as i know, its the only chord instructional manual
around.  al is a very good player and was my mentor back in the day.
while i don't think anyone actually teaches chord playing, i'd be glad to
swap emails with you to give you what information i know.   you can check
out a bit of my work at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sF0f1TFx-0Q

as far as tuning and splits and stuff......there are only two arrangement
styles of chords that i'm aware of:  the one you have and the newer one
that runs Gb Db Ab Eb Bb F  C G D A E B on the top deck.  all other chords
re-arranged accordingly.

in addition, there are two styles of the modern chord:  one uses a 1 3 5 8
arrangements of notes in each chord.  the other uses inversions so that no
chord sounds more than a fifth out of scale.   if you play a B chord on
your harp, i believe it will sound like the highest toned chord on the
harp.  then if you play a C chord, it will sound like the lowest.    on
this special inversion style chord, that large difference in tonality is
greatly reduced.

split chords aren't really documented anywhere and can be problematic in
terms of rhythm.  mostly you'll have to work out what chords you can get
with splits, both with and without tongue blocking.  i can explain that
more in private emails.

there are a few folks out there who've retuned the individual notes in
their chords to come up with alternative chords, but they're pretty rare.
and most of the time they''ve added at least one harmonica to the already
weighty dual harmonica design of the chord.   al smith used to play a
monstrous four-decker that weighed a ton and eventually gave him a really
serious case of carpal tunnel disease.

there's a handful of us chordies on slidemeister.   you might want to
contact the forum owner to see if he can help you get on board.  he's good
folk, as are all the peeps i've met there.

iowaplayer