[Harp-L] Re: First serious foray into tuning questions--'shrink" tuning

[HTownFess <Spschndr@xxxxxxx>]

Ron, IMO the "stretch" tuning is for playing that emphasizes single
notes strongly, not chords, chordal elements, or octaves.  Steve Baker
described it that way in The Harp Handbook about twenty years ago,
saying that he was not a tongue blocker (no chordal elements) and IIRC
not using octaves much either.  He said that higher notes on his
diatonics sounded better against the backing if tuned sharper than
usual, and of course he was already adept back then at moving single-
note runs over the entire diatonic--but I'd call his style still
relatively unusual in that sense, and say that more players probably
need a "shrink" tuning.

The "shrink" tuning of going slightly flatter on higher notes not only
gets the octaves in line, as Jim Gordon says, but because of the same
principle of lower-pitched reeds flattening more under the same
playing pressure, chords and chordal elements in any smoothed-out
tuning (commonly called JI and compromise tunings) will stay smooth
better in a "shrink" tuning.  This is very audible in 7-limit JI (the
"prewar" tuning) and still matters in the smoother compromise tunings
if one plays TB and lets chordal elements sound even on the way to
getting single notes, or if one plays chords up high with any
embouchure.  If you're playing an equal-tuned diatonic, then smoothing
the octaves would depend on how often you use octaves in your playing
style.

For shrink tuning, use the tuner to set the bottom octave of a
diatonic per your tuning scheme, but with the 1D & 1B slightly sharp
till those octaves play smoothly under most or all of your normal
playing pressure range.  You need your actual playing pressure to set
octaves: the tuner is just to get you into the ballpark.  Wipe the
octave reeds dry if you need to as you go along.  The upper octaves
are then done the same way: tuner to get in the ballpark, actual
playing pressure to zero in, dry off reeds and keep working.  You have
to refine your attack for tuning, learning the minimum pressure well
to get the highest natural pitch of the reed (open/resonant, light
pressure) to use with the tuner and as a starting point with octaves,
progressing to bearing down like you were playing in public to check
how the octave holds together as you hit it harder, if you want it to
hold together (the Wm. Clarke beat is easy to induce in a clean octave
by slight bending of the lower note).  It's possible to get octaves to
cohere over a remarkably wide dynamic range if you find the right
shrink for the upper note, and a tuner can't tell you that reliably.

Using your actual playing pressure to smooth out octaves is the
quickest, most reliable way--a tuner doesn't know how the individual
reeds react to your attack, so setting the higher reed some abstract
value flatter is only a starting point in the real world.  I use an
old strobe tuner and the speed at which the dial wheels left indicates
how flat the note is--a 9B needs to wheel faster than a 6B at minimum
pressure, and the 3B would hold steady as the root note; and from
there I'd dial them in by breath pressure, lower octave first,
remembering to dry reeds.

Using your own body that way makes your tuning more coherent.  You are
already adjusting intonation on the fly when you play with others, and
if your harmonicas are consistently internally coherent, following the
same overall pattern, then switching from one harp to another requires
no adjusting to individual harps' tuning quirks, and you can also
reliably evaluate how your tuning style works with others.

If you are using equal temperament and work the whole harp with single
notes more, then a stretch tuning could make sense and could be done
with the tuner as more of a reference.  On the other hand, a friend of
mine invented a tuner for the school band market, and uses it to put
his chromatics @ 440 or whatever his reference pitch is *under hard
playing pressure*.  He knows his own playing pressures, and the result
is a coherent tuning for his purposes (playing standards)--sounds
audibly good compared to the other guys in the harmonica band playing
stockers.

Dunno if it's too Zen, but your body may be the ultimate tuner, if you
incorporate it into your tuning drill, either shrinking (more common,
probably) or stretching octaves as suits your playing style.  I
daresay that if you bought a new diatonic and found good clean octaves
on it, examining the tuning carefully would reveal that the factory
had done a slight shrink, due to their reference plates having that
slight shrink.  Just looking at that with the tuner might mess with
your head, unless you focused on how the octave played cleanly: you're
playing the harmonica, not the tuner.  YMMV, but notice how the Iceman
sets up his octaves to work for him--he's tuned a thing or two in his
time.  Didn't look at the video, sorry.

Stephen Schneider

On Feb 28, 8:15 pm, captron...@xxxxxxx wrote:
>   Michael wrote that he had broken a few reeds and asked advice on how better to tune. He also asked about stretching the
> octaves to make chords sound better.  He said: I have been studying Sleigh's manual........as per Richard's
> instruction, I am tuning the higher note of an octave combination a hair sharper than the lower octave note.
>   To which Jim Gordon replied: When tuning octaves it is the lower pitched reed that should be slightly sharper than
> the higher reed, not the other way around as you say. ......snip......the octaves it is the lower reed that is more
> likely to have the pitch depressed when playing octaves.
>
>   I realize i must have been misinterpreting Jim's advice.  At first Jim's reply seemed to contain conflicting statements --
> first that the lower note needs to be sharper, than that it needs to be lower (depressed.  After many readings, i finally
> deduce that Jim meant that when PLAYING octaves, the lower note tends to flatten.
>   I also own Richard's Turbocharge Your Harmonica book and without looking, I seem to
> remember Richard saying what Michael said (that u tune a little higher as you go up the harp). Also, at the very beginning
> of Richard's You Tube video, "How to Tune Harmonicas", Lesson 1.2
> (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkFKbHNngNs&feature=PlayList&p=8AFC537...), Richard says that the
> higher notes get tuned a little higher.  Am i wrong?  So which is it?  
> ron - FL Keys