[Harp-L] re: what is a key

[Jonathan Ross <jross38@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Gary Lehmann wrote:

"Before I start, I want to remind everyone of the overtone series.  
One of the
reasons the resourceful American Negro created the blues on the  
harmonica is
that the equal tempered tuning was grotesque to his/her ears. By  
bending the
draw notes, an intonation closer to the natural overtone series was
available--blue third being the most crucial. Our major scale pattern is
based on the overtone series http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ 
Overtone_series"

No, that has nothing to do with why people started bending notes.   
Diatonic harmonicas in the later 19th and earlier 20th centuries were  
tuned pure, ie, by listening for beatless intervals.  This is the  
opposite of being in any temperament, equal or otherwise.  The  
harmonic series is a wonderful thing, but it can be overstressed in  
import, and this is obviously the case with the above.

In the standard Major diatonic tuning the two lowest chords can both  
be tuned pure, essentially in relation to the harmonic series because  
they are both very simple I-III-V chords, which corresponds to the  
basic part of the harmonic series quite well.  As you go farther up  
the series, you start to get into the problems which would lead to  
the needs for tempering.

As for why people started using bends, I would guess it was for  
effect (see train songs and fox chases) and later was expanded to  
note play.  Combine this with the addition of African derived scales  
(not neccessarily related to the pure harmonic series--the flatted  
fifth, for instance, is not the same as the pure fifth of the  
harmonic sequence) used in African-American music and I think a much  
more likely scenario emerges.  The harmonic series was no more  
beloved by African-Americans than European-Americans, and the blue  
notes found in African-American music is not really analogous to the  
harmonic sequence (indeed, much of European folk music was much more  
aligned with the harmonic series, IMO).




 ()()    JR "Bulldogge" Ross
()  ()   & Snuffy, too:)
`----'