[Harp-L] Harmonica Layout Spreadsheet

[Tim Moyer <wmharps@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Several years ago when I had too much time on my hands I spent a good deal of it creating an Excel spreadsheet to help me with harmonica tunings and layouts and how they related to scale notes for different scales and modes.  I've been through more than a dozen iterations of this thing, and for me it is still immensely helpful.  If you are interested in this kind of thing I invite you to take it for a spin.  I have made it read-only, but of course you can save a copy and modify the contents if you want.  I will warn you in advance that there is a very delicate relationship between the data and the layout that's necessary for things like scale note highlighting and scale degree indication.  

The sheet has several functional areas.  At the very top is a simple chromatic scale for reference.  Below that is a section for getting the notes of a desired scale for the 7 supported modes.  Scale key can be set to any root and the mode scales will recompute.  I apologize in advance for the improper enharmonic note naming.  It was not within my Excel skills to determine which enharmonic note name I should be using for a given scale, so you might see, for example, a scale with an Ab and an A, whereas this should properly be a G# and an A.  

Below the scale/mode section is a set of parameters for determining the layout of the harmonica.  These are the desired mode, the desired tuning and the root note of the harmonica.  There are a number of harmonica tunings available to choose from (16 in this version), some 10-hole and some 12-hole.  When any of the parameters are changed, the sections below recalculate to show 1) the notes available on that harmonica in that key, including the bends and overbends, 2) the same layout with the scale notes highlighted (along with a "position" indicator), and 3) the layout with the scale degrees indicated.  

Off to the side I created a little thing that helps me sometimes, you set a position and a tonic and it shows the chords for a I-IV-V and a ii-V-I progression.  I find this useful sometimes when I'm trying to find a good match between a harmonica tuning and the chord progression of a song.  

The second page of the sheet contains the data that's used to generate the layouts, and it's where I add new tunings.  There's a lot of hidden data in this workbook, including the places where it retrieves the note names and such.  I really suggest that you don't mess around with it, but if you're the kind that has to tinker, more power to you.  Please don't ask about providing a version for another spreadsheet application, or 
one that will work in older versions of Excel; it's really not my intent
 to start supporting this in general distribution.  If you can make use 
of it, great.  If not, my apologies.  

Well, that's about it.  I hope someone finds this useful.  I know I use the heck out of it and I've been adding to it for about six years now.  

http://www.workingmansharps.com/HarmonicaLayout/HarmonicaLayout.xlsx

-tim

Tim Moyer
Round Rock, TX