RE: Cheap Chromatics. Winslo 'n stuff.

[Mike@xxxxxxxxx (Michael Geary)]

>Do you know about 'country' or' major 7th' tuning? Gives you the F# instead
>of the F on a C harp on draw 5 without losing anything, because you can
>still get the F by bending (maybe easier than overblowing for the F# with
>Richter).  It opens up the G major scale (Ionian) in second (cross)
>position and a bunch more modal options with just that one note change. The
>SBS Harp Handbook details this out and I think Chris M told me that Charlie
>McCoy uses this a lot (or was it in Kim Fields book? :)  Something else to
>consider for 10 holes.

That's a great tuning.  I raise both minor 7ths to major 7ths and also raise
the blow 3 to the major 2nd instead of having it duplicate the tonic.  I
play at church a lot and this tuning works out great except for the few
songs where I need the chromatic.  Been tuning my harps this way for 7-8 years.

Lee Oskar now sells harmonicas in this tuning, called Melody Makers.  They
are available in only a few keys now, but they plan to introduce it in all
the keys.

-Mike