[Harp-L] The Forkord Turnaround VS harmonicaMD chord harmonica

[J Schaman <jschaman@xxxxxxx>]

I would like to congratulate Arnold Cazemier regarding his ingenious idea.
He has put a whole new meaning into ³cut and paste".  There is an uncanny
similarity between the Forkord Turnaround and the harmonicaMD "Medical"
chord harmonica. A number of individuals brought the harp-l posting to my
attention.

For those interested, I can address the ³why" and ³how" my harmonica came to
be. Working in the field of rehabilitation medicine for over 35 years, I was
aware that there was not a specific, dedicated device or method known to
improve or enhance pulmonary function. Furthermore, scientific evidence
showed lung function decline with ageing was excessive (data revealed that
it is a statistical norm in our population to lose 50% of lung function
between the ages of 30 and 70).  With a suggestion that harmonica playing
improved lung function and possibly even longevity, I embarked on a study to
prove or disprove this hypothesis.  The Harmonica Exercise for Lung Program
(H.E.L.P.) commenced in November 2007, primarily as a ³dose­response" study.
More details are available on the website: ( http://www.harmonicaMD.com/ ).

When we started we really didn't know what we were doing other than just
³playing the harmonica". I soon realized that normal playing by beginners
didn't challenge the lungs in a way that would achieve any significant
therapeutic effects or benefits, at least in our ambulatory population.
Initially we really weren't even sure what we were trying to achieve. As
time went on, we designed two main ³effects" that would make sense to
achieve physiological and possibly anatomical benefits. These 2 effects
were:
1. Work the lungs above and below the comfort zone (approximately the middle
25 to 30% of lung excursion) with forced and prolonged drawing and blowing,
such as when doing ³long tones" and, with prolonged holding of chords with a
method I have termed ³chordal jamming". This must be done to at the very
least a slight sensation of  ³discomfort".
2. Strengthening the muscles of respiration, which is not normally done with
any other exercise that I know of, including sprinting and marathon running.
This is best achieved with the ³rhythmic chordal exercises" on the website.
There are 4 different exercises with 8 speeds from 80 beats per minute to
220 bpm. This is all found under the ³program" heading and navigating to the
³advanced program". Again, this must be performed to a feeling of
³discomfort".
Unfortunately, we found those methods that provided appropriate
physiological challenge largely lacked musicality. The development of
³chordal jamming" restored significant musicality, however, because on a
Richter tuned diatonic harmonica there are really only 2 chords plus the
dominant 7th of the draw chord (on a key of C diatonic ­ C, G, G7), there is
a considerable limitation in composing music to play along with. I was given
the opportunity to design and develop a harmonica that would more adequately
suit our purposes.

It now became quite clear to me I made a bad decision as a youngster when I
chose football over music lessons! As I crammed music theory, I learned that
with the availability of 3 chords much more interesting music can be
composed than with only 2 chords. I learned that use of the I, IV, V chords
of a given key resulted in a particularly useful and pleasing combination.
So, my initial goal was to design a harmonica that played the I, IV, V
chords. I also thought that it would be exceptionally useful to have the
major chords as well as the dominant 7th chords.

Regarding my design of the ³medical harmonica", I essentially wanted to have
2 small 5 hole diatonic harmonicas, side-by-side, with a space between. In
order to achieve the I, IV, V chord pattern, I knew that drawing would
achieve the I chord and blowing the IV chord. The only missing chord was the
V chord. I wanted the overall size of this harmonica to be the same size as
a standard diatonic harmonica. I then chose the lowF key as the 1st
harmonica primarily because lower pitched harmonicas sound better with
chording and they use somewhat more air to help with the pulmonary
challenge.  I didn't want to go too low because ³bending" would be more
difficult.  I wanted to maintain the ability to play this ³chord harmonica"
diatonically, in other words, with single notes. This would allow more
advanced players to play ³bass lines" interspersed with the chords.  I
thought the lowF key was a good compromise. In this way the draw chord would
be the I chord, which on this harmonica would be Cmaj. That would leave the
blow chord as the IV chord (F). The only chord missing was the G (V chord).
I could have put this on the blow or the draw of the 2nd small harmonica. It
made most sense to put the G chord on the blow, which would make the 2nd
harmonica a key of G harmonica. That made a lot of sense to me as the four
chords would be: F C G D, which is the precise progression of the ³circle of
fifths".

The next challenge was to create the possibility of playing the dominant 7th
of all 4 of these chords. The draw chords already had the dominant 7th on
the 5 draw and the 10 draw. I tuned the 5 blow and 10 blow reeds down 6
semitones to achieve the flat 7th. I actually have 2 versions of the medical
chord harmonica: one, with the 5 blow and 10 blow reeds left in the Richter
tuning and the 2nd with the 5 blow and 10 blow reeds tuned as I have
described to give the dominant 7ths. The 1st option is more useful for
playing melodies and really anything that can be played on the 1st 5 holes
of a diatonic Richter tuned harmonica. The 2nd option, the main one we now
use in the medical program, plays the dominant sevenths. After all, for the
medical program the primary requirement is to have a chord harmonica. The
chords available are: F, F7, C, C7, G, G7, D, D7, allowing the I, IV, V
chord pattern to be played in actually 2 keys, C and G!  (Although our
'production' harmonica for the medical program uses the lowF-G combination,
I have made several other keys including lowC-D and A-B, which may in the
future be available by special order)

As the previous harp-l posts indicated I have not had a mechanism on my
website for purchasing the medical chord harmonica. This is presently being
rectified and I expect a PayPal mechanism will be available in the next few
days.

Thank you.
John