[Harp-L] History of harp tuning

["Harmonicology [Neil Ashby]" <harmonicology@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

->(Steve Baker): "Like I said, the <2% figure came from Lee Oskar personally."

That might correspond to the percentage of players of harmonica whom have actually studied Music Theory.

->(Steve Baker): "pretty easy to make yourself from standard harps if you have the necessary tuning tools".

That might be the best solution; via selling some large number of generic (Richter) harmonicas then the individual price can be kept low while professionals can re-tune as desired.

BTW: The diatonic harmonica can be played really well from sheet music (which has the meter, beats per minute, rests, slurs and accents on the score), but the actual sheet music for popular tunes is usually copyrighted and unavailable without charge; therefore most harp-players learn tunes from tabs. 

Players accustomed to musical score should be comfortable with switching of harps to another key and playing from the same musical score; often (for other instruments) the musical score is written with notation that the music is to be performed at some range away from the actual notation (usually an octave or two above or below the printed score); the players of harmonica would just listen for the correct intervals while reading the same score and performing on the harmonica of another key.

/Neil