Re: [Harp-L] Hohner Orchester

[funharp@xxxxxx]

Timm,

Timm schrieb:
> I believe that Moll means something about its minor tuning?

Not quite. Moll is the german name for minor. It says nothing about what
minor scale / tuning it is. The Hohner Orchester was tuned to harmonic
minor, so your C - moll harp is tuned:

C  Eb  G  C  Eb  G  C  Eb  G  C
1  2   3  4  5   6  7  8   9  10
D  G   B  D  F   Ab B  D   F  Ab

the C harmonic minor scale is C - D - Eb - F - G - Ab - B - C. There are
half steps between the 2nd and the 3rd, the 5th and the 6th and also
between the 7th and the 8th.

the C natural minor scale is C - D - Eb - F - G - Ab - Bb - C. There are
two half steps between the 2nd and the 3rd and between the 5th and the
6th.
So a C - natural minor harp looks like that:

C  Eb  G  C  Eb  G  C  Eb  G  C
1  2   3  4  5   6  7  8   9  10
D  G   Bb D  F   Ab Bb D   F  Ab

Natural minor is the aeolian mode of Eb - major or you can say the
parallel minor key to Eb - major.

> > there are 2 types of minor keyed harmonicas,
> > Natural Minor, Harmonic Minor. I would like to understand the difference. I
> > also would like to know how to use them and where.

Harmonic minor is good for playing eastern / oriental music. With a
natural minor harp you can play minor blues in 2nd position quite well.
But I'll give up here and hand it over to the more experienced players
on this list, who can explain it also with a much better English than I
am able to...

I hope this was a little bit of help for you,

Otto