[Harp-L] tuning schemas for playing styles (long)

[pdxharpdog@xxxxxxxxxxx]

I have been bothered by a tuning problem as IÂhead into the studio to record the harmonica parts for our band's new CD. I haveÂhad theÂroughs of the guitar, bass and drums with scratch vocals for the past couple of weeks perfecting my harmonica parts for each song. Earlier today I had a discussion offline with Winslow Yerxa about tuning schemas and why my harps even new out of the box seem to be oddly out of tune with the guitar player in my band, who is tuned to 440 and tunes before each song in the studio. So you don't think I'm being too picky, there were some real clams on notes I play - bothÂseriously flat 5-draw and also significantly too sharp notes on the upper register. I checked my harps (new out of the box) against what I understood the tuning schemas to be and they were pretty close. I play Seydels, Suzukis and SP20s. 



I had also just read Winslow'sÂHarmonica for Dummies (great resource for all things harmonica) and theÂchapter on setting up harps and tuning. I also went toÂPat Missin'sÂwebsiteÂand had a discussion via email with Rupert Oysler about Seydel tuning, watched his video and have talked to a few pro-players. None of these sources explained it to me in a way I could grasp, so I emailed Winslow to ask him what could be the problem. I play mostly melody horn lines as we only have guitar, bass, drums, vocals and me on the harp.ÂAll our songs are originals - and roughly based on aÂ1920's based finger-picking guitar style (think punk Blind Blake if that isn't too blasp hemous) that we punk up with electric cigar-boxÂand such. ÂI'm asked to compose the hooks, duo and play off the guitar leads, and generally hold the melody line throughout the song, or - ÂdoÂa more traditional Chicago distorted harp sound on the trance-blues stuff.ÂOur guitar player genuinely likes harp and wants me to always be there in the mix holding the melody.  



My question to Winslow (somewhat edited for this post) wasÂwhy do my new out of the box harps seem so out of tune? and something to the effect of Â"what is the base frequency set point if you are mainly playing melody lines? "Â440? ÂHigher to deal with the natural flattening with increased air pressure? 442/443? What is the best tuning schema? 12TET, Just Intonation, Compromise Tuning of some sort? 



His answer was very clear and he promised he would reply to this email post with the gist of his answer earlier today. Thanks Winslow for helping me to better understand how playing styles should factor intoÂtuning. 



pdxharpdog 

www.myspace.com/sassparillajugband