The magnificent seventh...

My 2c worth on this interesting and informative thread:

The draw chord of the standard diatonic harmonica is traditionally tuned
4/5/6/7 and sounds lovely and smooth, the 7th harmonica accentuating the
"tonicity" of the chord in blues/jazz/etc. (although my music teachers would
scratch their heads in confusion over the concept of a "dominant tonic"!!),
but can sound abslutely disgusting as a melodic note. On a standard C
instument, the draw chord is G9th and when you play that F as part of the C
major scale, most ears seem to percieve it as "out of tune". Moving to the
key of Dm makes matters even worse. In G, the 7/4 is not so bad melodically,
but in blues playing, there is a tendency to sharpen flat seventh, so the
7/4, whilst not sounding quite so "out of tune", can still sound a little
uninteresting. I have tried using a seventh of 9/5 and it can dramatically
enhance the bluesiness, but sounds rough as hell as part of the 7th chord
(however, on the minor tuned harp as part of a m9th chord, 9/5 sounds very
strong indeed). My usual compromise (and a compromise it most definitely is)
is to use 16/9 or (horror of horrors!) 1000c. Just out of interest, does
anyone out there know which seventh is used on a melodeon (diatonic accordion)?

.and come to think of it, what about the 57th and 29th harmonics? Or maybe
even the 59th - this might make a very bluesy seventh?


Pat Missin - patm@globalnet.co.uk

"...my music's a lot better than it sounds!" (with apologies to Mark Twain)
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Message written at 2 Sep 1996 20:59:59 +0100
In-reply-to:
(message from John Chalmers on Fri, 30 Aug 1996 16:02:44 -0700)

I suspect I am not the correct person to do it, but perhaps someone
should describe the Extended Csound presentations at Hong Kong for
Brian?
==John ff

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