[Harp-L] RE: Once In My Life tuning WAS Isn't She Lovely... on Diatonic?

[Richard Hunter <turtlehill@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I took a Delta Frost B harp that I had lying around and made a Once In My Life tuning: standard Richter with draw 5 reed tuned up 1/2 step (a la Country tuning) and blow 10 reed tuned down 1/2 half.  I think I could get to like this tuning a lot.

This tuning offers all the usual advantages of Country tuning, about which Steve Baker and I have both written on this list.  It also gives you a lot of pitch control over the top couple of notes on the harp--you get a powerful and stable major 3rd over the root in second position, which can easily be blow-bent down to a very stable flat 3rd.  I also discovered that the overdraw on the draw 10 reed now produces the same note as the original blow 10--i.e. the perfect 4th above the root in 2nd position, same note as the key of the harp.

On the chord side, you now have a complete IV major 7 chord (in second position) in the top octave (blow 7-8-9-10).  Along with that comes a iii chord triad (blow 8-9-10) and a partial I chord (blow 9-10) in both close (3rd) and open (10th) voicing.  

I think that this major 3rd on top is in many ways a more useful note than the perfect 4th it replaces.  If you're already using Country tunings, or even standard Richters, you might find this tuning very useful, and you only have to retune one reed to set it up.

Regards, Richard Hunter    

author, "Jazz Harp"
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