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

["eskeene@xxxxxxxx" <eskeene@xxxxxxxx>]

I am a huge fan of the spiral (circular, Zirk) tuning, and since discovering it have abandoned all other tunings on my non-chromatics. I play mainly American fiddle tunes and Bluegrass on them (I use the chromatics for Irish and Canadian tunes), so if I could only have ONE, it would be the key of "A". Unlike the Richters,  Zirks are named in the "cross key", so just as "C" is kind of the standard Richter harp to have (which gives the cross harp key of "G" for blues), "G" would be the Zirk equivalent, AND, played "straight"  it will give you all the natural notes in the key of "C".  That said, another of the advantages of the Zirk is the wider variety of positions you can use as a tonic, enabling one to take advantage of various modes in a more intuitive way. That said, there's always a trade-off, so while you can still play good blues,  some of the traditional blues harp effects are lost. I'm thinking of experimenting with some half-valves, not to get the notes, but to be able to bend some of the blow notes in some tunes.  Cheers, emily  
Message: 12
Date: Thu, 23 Apr 2015 00:39:52 +0200
From: christoph@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [Harp-L] Spiral tuning for a beginner: which key?
To: rex <rexg4@xxxxxxxx>
Cc: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
Message-ID: <87iocng53b.fsf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed

Rex, thank you for your detailed and helpful reply!

I didnâ&euro;&trade;t realize that Melody Maker and Spiral are so closely 
related.  Actually, now that I had a close look at both, I wonder 
(just out of curiosity) why Melody Maker has the last 4 holes 
inverted.  Is it to keep it more similar to Richter (and make 
retuning simpler)?  Or does this inversion offer some 
possibilities that Spiral does not provide? (C-E-G chords?)

I know that some would say that I should practice playing instead 
of studying tunings, but I actually like to do both.  I find harp 
tunings by themselves a very interesting optimization problem (and 
a vehicle to learn some music theory.)  There are so many 
contradicting aspects!  Now that I learned a bit more about 
tunings, Iâ&euro;&trade;m not so sure anymore whether I should go for spiral. 
Perhaps in the end I will choose Power Bender.

So for now I will stick with my C-major-Richter and practice my 
bends, until I know whether Iâ&euro;&trade;d like to optimize my harp more for 
bends, or more for melody playing / chords.

Disregarding popularity, are there actually any aspects in which 
Richter is superior to Power Bender?  It looses the ungapped 
sequence of C-E-G chords in blow which I suppose is useful when 
playing in first position with tongue blocking.  Is this actually 
the original reason for that C-E-G sequence?

Thanks
Christoph
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