Re: [Harp-L] PentaBender Tuning

[Gary Lehmann <gnarlyheman@xxxxxxxxx>]

Good Morning Roger,

As I have pointed out, this tuning is the same as another tuning, with an
added hole to enable full chromaticity with no overbends. It's just like
the IV6/V6 tuning that Brendan calls Power Chromatic, except for the added
notes--in C, a hole playing | G a |. I start my PentaBender on this
hole--here it is, all 14 holes of it.

| G3 a3 | A3 b3 | C4 d4 | D4 e4| F4 g4 | G4 a4 | A4 b4 | C5 d5 | D5 e5| F5
g5 | G5 a5 | A5 b5 | C5 d5 | D5 e5 |

I have found that the Hohner 365 lends itself to these 5 hole per octave
tunings. An instrument with even more holes would be better! But the 365 is
a Marine Band, the reeds are terrific (disclaimer--I work for Suzuki US, I
am not endorsing my competitor, only speaking the truth) and the height of
the mouthpiece doesn't bother me either. I'm not crazy about wooden combs,
but I had Mike Peace varnish and screw them, and he does excellent work
(again, I do private repairs too, not trying to give business away, but
it's easier to keep track of my words if I say what I think is true).

Not every hole bends easily, for me anyway, but most of them do. The tuning
isn't really for playing in all 12 keys, unless you are a master of bends,
in which case you are probably satisfied with standard tuning anyway. And
this instrument overblows well! No overdraws, as every blow hole is lower
than the draw.

Power Chromatic has only one missing note, the b6 of the key--it must be
played with either an overblow or a valved bend. It works perfectly well
and I use it a great deal. That is almost certainly why I can play the
PentaBender without too much cognitive dissonance. Here is that tuning,
starting from the note below (the hole missing on the Power Chromatic is
the first hole, | G3 a3| , in my chart).

| F3 g3 | A3 b3 | C4 d4 | D4 e4| F4 g4 | A4 b4 | C5 d5 | D5 e5| F5 g5 | A5
b5 |

"Invent" is a strong term, I am content to credit you with "discovering"
the tuning. Did Benjamin Franklin "invent" electricity? Of course not, but
we credit him with being brave enough to capture it!

I don't hear a lot about others using Power Chromatic either--anyone else
like to chime in?

Gary in San Diego

On Fri, Apr 22, 2016 at 6:25 AM, Roger Myerson <rmyerson@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

> Gary, thanks for demonstrating the potential of the pentabender!
> But where you credit me with inventing this tuning, I feel that I can only
> claim to have discovered it.
> It is such a simple and natural way to design a diatonic harmonica that it
> is hard to believe that people did not see it much earlier.
> That is why I just feel that somebody else must have thought about this
> tuning some time before I did in 2014.
>