[Harp-L] 12-hole fourkey harmonicas available from Seydel

[Roger Myerson <rmyerson@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Jim:
Your proposed layout could be called an "Ab 12.1 fourkey" (12 holes, 
first-position tonic in blow 1, first major position being Ab) but with 
the blow 1 note lowered a semitone to G4.  It might seem awkward to 
convert that low first-position tonic (G#4) into a bend note, but at 
least it's available, and you've added the low G4 to your range.  The 
bendified G# is used in only first two major positions, while the added 
G note is used in all four major positions of the instrument, and so you 
might end up feeling that you've come out ahead on the deal.  So this 
looks quite promising to me!

The analogous trick of extending the range by raising the high draw a 
semitone has worked very well for me the 10-hole fourkeys that I use 
regularly, but I don't find it as satisfactory in these 12-hole harps.  
The problem is that the reeds in the 12th hole are just a bit too high 
for me to bend well.

There is one other trick you could consider.  The Soloist Pro 12 is 
actually designed to have lower notes in the blows than the draws up in 
the high holes.  By keeping draws higher in fourkey tuning, we make it 
harder to fit.  So if you reversed the blow and draw in the top few 
holes, maybe you could get a little more wiggle room to get a fourkey 
tuning with the range you want.  That's the only way that I ever found 
to configure a fourkey on the old Soloist Pro 12 Brass harps.  I 
actually bought one once but never really tried to play it.
-Roger

> Roger,
>
> This is good news. Unfortunately, I still can't get either of my 
> preferred layouts for a transposing Bb or Eb instrument with the tonic 
> in blow 2. The Bb instrument is tantalizingly close. If I could get 
> g#4 in hole 1, it would be there, but the highest note in that hole is 
> g4. So I can get blow notes g4, a#4, c#5, d#5, f5, g#5, a#5, c#6, d#6, 
> f6, g#6, a#6
> and draw notes a4, c5, d5, e5, g5, a5, c6, d6, e6, g6, a6, c7
>
> Trying to move my pattern up a hole gives your Ab 12.4 layout from f4 
> to a6, so that's not so bad but means the top note is a half step flat 
> of reaching two full octaves from the tonic. I can raise the12 draw 
> which breaks the pattern but might be worth it.
>
> Hmm, that means your Bb 12.4 from g4 to b6 would be my C layout (with 
> C tonic in blow 3) and again i can get two octaves up by raising12 
> draw to C7.
>
> The Eb instrument is still impossible except for your C# 12.3 layout - 
> which incidentally is the only layout (I think) possible on the 
> original Pro Solist 12.
>
> Jim Hanks