Re: [Harp-L] dorian tuning?

[fjm <mktspot@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

If you use chords altered tunings are great but they're also quite 
useful for single note playing too.  Hey Bob, remember that C I bought 
from you awhile back?  I retuned it to G minor and now I use it all the 
time.  Perhaps I sensed you'd just try and talk me out of it?  For 
anyone influenced by Lee Oskar or Mickey Raphael or for that matter 
Charlie McCoy altered tunings are a must.  Guitar players retune all the 
time, what's the big deal?  Capos are just a form of retuning.  Choose 
the instrument that feeds your muse not someone else's.  Speaking of 
altered tunings, I had bought all 5 of the Lee Oskar Melody Maker tuned 
harmonicas and then promptly left them in a drawer for the next 7 years. 
 An answer to a question I wasn't asking, or so I thought.  Follwing 
WVa Bob's question regarding playing Somewhwere Over the Rainbow I 
started pondering the suggestion to use a MM tuning.  Eventually I got a 
Special 20 retuned to a F# MM scheme.  At first it made my brain hurt 
but now I think I'm going to switch.  The chord voicings and 
possibilites are nicer than on the SBS I used to play it on.  That and 
there aren't any of those naked 3 down draw bends that can sound oh so 
bad if you miss even slightly not to mention legato.  Ok, so Jason 
Ricci, Michael Peloquin, Rosco, and Chris Michalek don't use altered 
tunings, I'll add Bob Meehan to the list.  I have no desire to sound 
like any of these people.  Are any of these guys tongue blockers?  Oops, 
Rosco's in training.  I don't mean to sound as if I'm dismissing any 
particular style of music here, I'm not.  It's just I hear in my nhead 
what I hear in my head and it's none of the above.  fjm