Re: [Harp-L] re:Richter+ tuning

[Winslow Yerxa <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>]

Neil Ahsby writes:==== 

"Blues" was particularly suitable to standard "Richter" tuning but the original "Richter" pattern was intentionally crippled to inhibit competition against more expensive musical instruments on which popular and classical melodies would be played.

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Winslow replies:

Where's your backing documentation for that claim? Accordions cost far more than harmonicas, and yet the simplest 10-button diatonic accordions have the identical note layout to that of the standard diatonic harmonica.

A far more likely reason is quite evident and makes good sense if you understand its function. The omission of two scale notes in the first three holes enables those holes to play the two most fundamental accompanying chords, the I chord (blow notes, C chord on a C harmonica) and the V chord (draw notes, G chord on a C harmonica). By using tongue blocking, you could alternate between single notes (tongue on) and their accompanying chords (tongue off)  and provide your own rhythmic and chordal accompaniment. The original function of the first three holes was to provide chords, not melody notes. Melody was to be played in the remaining holes.

Later, solo tuning was invented to allow melody playing through the entire range of the instrument. the notes of the scale throughout the range of the instrument, and it had the additional advantage of keeping the blow/draw relationships identical throughout its range, something that Paddy fails to correct, as long as you're looking to correct perceived disadvantages.

Any alternate tuning gives something and takes something else away. Several hundred of them exist (check the long list of them at patmissin.com) and each has its advocates. People have been dreaming up, patenting, using, sometimes successfully marketing (Brendan Power, Lee Oskar), and advocating for the wider adoption and even standardization of alternate tunings for over a century, but for some reason none has supplanted the standard tunings.

By the way, "Blues" is not in the past tense. It's very much alive and may actually be the majority interest in harmonica playing nowadays. And to use a saying I first heard from the mouth of blues guitarist Hubert Sumlin, blues harp players can do more with standard tuning than a monkey can do with a peanut.

Winslow