Re: [Harp-L] Spiral tuning for a beginner: which key?

[Rudolf Nasahl <rudi.nasahl@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Christoph,

It seems to me you are going the same way as myself.
I also want to play any and all music, not particularly the Blues, and thought this may best be done with Richter tuned blues harps.
After a long way of try and error with otherwise tuned makes and models I ended up with
Solo tuned Seydel Fanfare in C and one in G
Here is the tuning table for the C model:

Tontabelle - Fanfare Tremolo Solo
blasen	c'	e'	g'	c''	c''	e''	g''	c'''	c'''	e'''	g'''	c''''
Kanal	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12
ziehen	d'	f'	a'	b'	d''	f''	a''	b''	d'''	f'''	a'''	bâ''

And my beloved alternative is the Seydel Orchestra in Low C, which I think may meet your expectations. Here the tuning table:

Tontabelle - Orchestra in LC
blasen	g	c'	c'	e'	g'	c''	c''	e''	g''	c'''
Kanal	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
ziehen	a	b	d'	f'	a'	b'	d''	f''	a''	b''

Der tiefste Grundton der Dur-Skala befindet sich in 3 blasen!

I also play Seydel Blues Session with circular tuning, but more and more seldomly.

Give the Seydel Orchestra in LC your first choice.

I am not employed and not paid by Seydel. I play Hohner, Suzuki and Lee Oscar as well. Each brand has its strenght,	

Kind regards

Rudi Nasahl


> Am 21.04.2015 um 07:53 schrieb christoph@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx:
> 
> Dear all,
> 
> I recently got a Richter-tuned harp in C-major and I can play some tunes on it.  I'm motivated to keep on learning.  I'm not particularly interested in blues, rather in all-round playing.  As a scientifically-minded person I find the irregularities of the standard tuning irritating, so I got interested in alternative tunings.  I thought I could as well continue learning on a spiral-tuned harp.
> 
> I wonder which key to choose (for the beginning I'd like to get a single one only).  As I'm most interested in playing solo without other instruments, the relevant criterion seems to be the tonal range.  What would you suggest as a good compromise for all-round playing?  I find the upper tones of my C-major Richter rather squeaky, while I think that some lower tones wouldn't hurt.  But then, as a beginner, I would like to be able to play simple C-major tunes without bends at more-or-less their official pitch. I think this means that I should get a harp where 2-draw is C4. But won't this one be too low for all-round playing in the lower octave that starts with 2-draw?  Perhaps a better choice is to choose G4 as 2-draw.  But then, if I understand correctly, playing C5-major will require a bend (perhaps that's easy enough).
> 
> It seems to me that Seydelâs default, the âcompromised tuningâ is a good choice for all-round playing with some chords.  Can you confirm this?
> 
> Finally, the manufacturer offers to half-valve the harp.  I understand that this is not something for beginners, but is it a good idea to half-valve the harp right-away for the future?  I read that this modifies the sound a bit, but otherwise there are no downsides.
> 
> By the way, I notice that even though spiral tuning makes all the notes of a key directly available, the additional notes from blow-bends are different from octave to octave (depending on whether the tonic is on draw or blow).  I wonder about the practical significance of this (also for choosing the key).
> 
> Many thanks
> Christoph
>