[Harp-L] Chromatic in Eb

[Winslow Yerxa <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>]

Laurent writes:

>From what I learned when buying it, the chromatics generally start to
C and then go down in tuning (typically: middle C, low D, low E, low F,
low G, low A, low Bb, low B, C tenor for the CX-12).

My guess is that this is due to the problem encountered in the high
hole for high pitched chroms (bad chamber size/reed lenght ratio).

=================Winslow:

This may or may not be the reason. 

Most tremolo harmonicas also pitch their keys in a similar manner. I
suspect that this is so that middle-octave and third-octave melody can
be played in a range that doesn't sound too high, as the lower octave
is intended for chording. 

This scheme may simply have been carried over to the chromatic
harmonica. 

But why this was not done also with the standard single-reed diatonic I
don't know. And then there is the 12-hole single reed, as in the Hohner
364, where the C and D are both low-pitched.

Winslow

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