Re: [Harp-L] chrom tuning

[Slim Heilpern <slim@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Yeah, it's so annoying. Every time I hear a Toots or Stevie solo, my first thought is that they would sound so much better if they weren't hampered by that  ridiculous note layout. And every time I hear a great blues guy playing solo-tuned chromatic and hitting that minor 6 chord over and over, I think they would sound so much better if they were playing a diminished chord instead (not!).

This is simple folks. Musical instruments evolve in various ways for reasons not always relevant to how we end up using them. If you want to spend your time learning different tunings, that's cool. But you can make great music on just about anything (including a solo-tuned chromatic) as long as you take the time to master it.

Solo tuning may not seem logical, but it has plenty to offer if you work with it.

And how 'bout the logic of standard guitar tuning, what's up with the major third from the G to B strings? I wonder why we guitar players put up with it.... ;-)

But no, I wouldn't tune a piano like a solo-tuned chrom because there would be no obvious benefit to doing that.

- Slim.

www.SlideManSlim.com

On May 13, 2014, at 9:58 AM, Music Cal wrote:

> For those of you that think that one tuning is as good as the next I ask
> you this: Would you tune a piano like the solo-tuned chromatic harmonica?
> This would mean repeated pitches, which sometimes appear a few piano keys
> down stream from the others, and in addition, rather than always increasing
> in pitch as one goes from left to right across the keyboard, sometimes the
> pitches would descend.
> 
> Really? ... Really?
> 
> Daniel