My dream harmonica

A newbie question, sort of: who makes custom harmonicas with custom tunings? I want one with this kind of tuning:

The scale is hexatonic blues in G, based on a harmonic series: 8:9:10:11:12:14:16. Blown holes produce a major chord (4:5:6); drawn holes some sort of augmented triad (7:9:11). A lever like those found on chromatic harmonicas, when pressed, shifts the key to C (it doesn't shift all the notes down a fifth or up a fourth; it just changes the key while moving some notes a little).

For the first three holes (1/1 = 195.56 Hz):
Blown: 1/1 5/4 3/2
Drawn: 9/8 11/8 7/4
With the lever pressed:
Blown: 1/1 4/3 5/3
Drawn: 7/6 3/2 11/6

The resulting decatonic scale is G A Bb- B C C+ D E F- F+ G. It includes some common pentatonic scales, and quite a few somewhat unorthodox Arabic maqamat, such as Rast in D and Bayati in E.

From: "Daniel A. Wier"

> For the first three holes (1/1 = 195.56 Hz):
> Blown: 1/1 5/4 3/2
> Drawn: 9/8 11/8 7/4
> With the lever pressed:
> Blown: 1/1 4/3 5/3
> Drawn: 7/6 3/2 11/6

Forgot to mention: the three-hole pattern repeats every octave, and there should be 10 or 11 holes.

Daniel,

Since the harmonica uses vibrating metal reeds, and the pitch of
each depends mostly on its length, would it be hard to modify a
standard instrument by cutting and filing off the ends of some
reeds?

Regards,
Yahya

-----Original Message-----
________________________________________________________________________

Message: 13
Date: Sat, 12 Mar 2005 21:11:25 -0600
From: "Daniel A. Wier" <dawiertx@sbcglobal.net>
Subject: My dream harmonica

A newbie question, sort of: who makes custom harmonicas with custom tunings?
I want one with this kind of tuning:

The scale is hexatonic blues in G, based on a harmonic series:
8:9:10:11:12:14:16. Blown holes produce a major chord (4:5:6); drawn holes
some sort of augmented triad (7:9:11). A lever like those found on chromatic
harmonicas, when pressed, shifts the key to C (it doesn't shift all the
notes down a fifth or up a fourth; it just changes the key while moving some
notes a little).

For the first three holes (1/1 = 195.56 Hz):
Blown: 1/1 5/4 3/2
Drawn: 9/8 11/8 7/4
With the lever pressed:
Blown: 1/1 4/3 5/3
Drawn: 7/6 3/2 11/6

The resulting decatonic scale is G A Bb- B C C+ D E F- F+ G. It includes
some common pentatonic scales, and quite a few somewhat unorthodox Arabic
maqamat, such as Rast in D and Bayati in E.

________________________________________________________________________

Message: 16
Date: Sat, 12 Mar 2005 23:26:53 -0600
From: "Daniel A. Wier" <dawiertx@sbcglobal.net>
Subject: Re: My dream harmonica

From: "Daniel A. Wier"

> For the first three holes (1/1 = 195.56 Hz):
> Blown: 1/1 5/4 3/2
> Drawn: 9/8 11/8 7/4
> With the lever pressed:
> Blown: 1/1 4/3 5/3
> Drawn: 7/6 3/2 11/6

Forgot to mention: the three-hole pattern repeats every octave, and there
should be 10 or 11 holes.

________________________________________________________________________

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From: "Yahya Abdal-Aziz":

> Since the harmonica uses vibrating metal reeds, and the pitch of
> each depends mostly on its length, would it be hard to modify a
> standard instrument by cutting and filing off the ends of some
> reeds?

Yeah, but that would raise the pitch of the reeds; I'm wanting to lower the pitch of some, and redistribute them as well. (A conventional harmonica repeats the octave every four holes; mine every three.)

This website looks promising: http://www.customharmonicas.com/. They do experimental instruments; possibly including microtonal. Except they don't show any pictures of instruments or anything.

Daniel A. Wier wrote:
>
>A newbie question, sort of: who makes custom harmonicas with custom tunings?

There are a few people who do this, myself included.

>I want one with this kind of tuning:
>
>The scale is hexatonic blues in G, based on a harmonic series:
>8:9:10:11:12:14:16. Blown holes produce a major chord (4:5:6); drawn holes
>some sort of augmented triad (7:9:11). A lever like those found on chromatic
>harmonicas, when pressed, shifts the key to C (it doesn't shift all the
>notes down a fifth or up a fourth; it just changes the key while moving some
>notes a little).
>
>For the first three holes (1/1 = 195.56 Hz):
>Blown: 1/1 5/4 3/2
>Drawn: 9/8 11/8 7/4
>With the lever pressed:
>Blown: 1/1 4/3 5/3
>Drawn: 7/6 3/2 11/6

This would be fairly easy to build, particularly if you started with
one of the so-called Richter tuned chromatics in the key of G. Hohner
make a couple of models that would be a good starting point for this
tuning. In fact, you could do most of the work yourself, although the
highest notes would require some reed replacement, which is a little
challenging if you've never done this sort of thing before.

-- Pat Missin.

www.patmissin.com

Yahya Abdal-Aziz wrote:
>
>Daniel,
>
>Since the harmonica uses vibrating metal reeds, and the pitch of
>each depends mostly on its length, would it be hard to modify a
>standard instrument by cutting and filing off the ends of some
>reeds?

This would indeed raise the pitch of a reed, but it would also make
the reed too short for its slot. In order for a free reed to work
correctly, it needs to fit its slot very closely - a large gap in the
slot at the end of the reed would make the reed feel very leaky as one
played it.

The basic principles for tuning the harmonica, or any other Western
free reed instrument, is the same as the method described by Partch in
"Genesis" for tuning reed organs.

To raise the pitch of a reed, remove some material from the surface of
the reed towards the tip (the free end).

To lower the pitch of a reed, either add some material to the tip, or
thin the reed near the fixed end.

There are some limits as to how far you can adjust the pitch of a reed
without adversely affecting its performance. Most professional
harmonica technicians (yes - there are people who do this for a
living!) have a stock of replacement reeds in a wide variety of
pitches.

On my website, I have provided a free download of a zipped collection
of text files on the subject of tuning and retuning harmonicas, for
anyone wishing to learn a few tips of the trade from someone who's
been earning a living doing this for a few years.

-- Pat Missin.

www.patmissin.com

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, "Daniel A. Wier" <dawiertx@s...> wrote:
> This website looks promising: http://www.customharmonicas.com/. They do
> experimental instruments; possibly including microtonal. Except they
don't
> show any pictures of instruments or anything.

Might be a good place to order.

Howard Levy by playing chromatic jazz lines on diatonic harmonicas
brought attention to Joe Filisko and his harmonica customization
method. He does this by using note-bending techniques to access notes
that are not on the default scale. The Filisko method reportedly
makes it easier for Levy to use his "overblow" technique, a method of
bending notes up instead of down.

Please post a report if you get a harmonica customized by these folks.

From: "Pat Missin":

> This would be fairly easy to build, particularly if you started with
> one of the so-called Richter tuned chromatics in the key of G. Hohner
> make a couple of models that would be a good starting point for this
> tuning. In fact, you could do most of the work yourself, although the
> highest notes would require some reed replacement, which is a little
> challenging if you've never done this sort of thing before.
>
> -- Pat Missin.
>
> www.patmissin.com

I got your links in Favorites now, and I might need your help in the future.

(I was listening to a harp player in a klezmer band I found online. He had it sounding a lot like a clarinet.)

Pat,

Yes - I thought this might alter the effort and hence the sound.
I recall when, as a kid, I pulled an old Hohner apart to unstick
a reed, noting how the slots have lengths graduated to match
the reeds.

Naturally, I defer to your years of relevant experience! I was
just trying to let Daniel know that others are interested in
solving the same problems.

BTW, nice site! I particularly enjoyed all the info on the
various eastern free reed instruments. While living in Sabah,
Malaysia in the seventies, we bought a sompoton at Tamparuli,
in the heart of the Kadazan country, and my son and wife both
used to enjoy playing on it. We never did find out what the
black gum was that sealed the pipes to the gourd. Now I know
it was probably beeswax, as you describe. The poor old pipes
eventually cracked up, the sompoton broke up and we threw it
away. It had eight pipes and was a little larger than the one in
your photo, with the lowest note approximately D on my piano,
rather than E as in your specimen.

Thanks for the info on tuning harmonicas. Think I might go and
find myself a new harmonica to play on and with.

Regards,
Yahya

-----Original Message-----
________________________________________________________________________
Date: Mon, 14 Mar 2005 10:34:35 -0500
From: Pat Missin
Subject: RE: My dream harmonica

Yahya Abdal-Aziz wrote:
>
>Daniel,
>
>Since the harmonica uses vibrating metal reeds, and the pitch of
>each depends mostly on its length, would it be hard to modify a
>standard instrument by cutting and filing off the ends of some
>reeds?

This would indeed raise the pitch of a reed, but it would also make
the reed too short for its slot. In order for a free reed to work
correctly, it needs to fit its slot very closely - a large gap in the
slot at the end of the reed would make the reed feel very leaky as one
played it.

The basic principles for tuning the harmonica, or any other Western
free reed instrument, is the same as the method described by Partch in
"Genesis" for tuning reed organs.

To raise the pitch of a reed, remove some material from the surface of
the reed towards the tip (the free end).

To lower the pitch of a reed, either add some material to the tip, or
thin the reed near the fixed end.

There are some limits as to how far you can adjust the pitch of a reed
without adversely affecting its performance. Most professional
harmonica technicians (yes - there are people who do this for a
living!) have a stock of replacement reeds in a wide variety of
pitches.

On my website, I have provided a free download of a zipped collection
of text files on the subject of tuning and retuning harmonicas, for
anyone wishing to learn a few tips of the trade from someone who's
been earning a living doing this for a few years.

-- Pat Missin.

www.patmissin.com

________________________________________________________________________

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Pat,

Thanks for clarifying that.

Regards,
Yahya

-----Original Message-----
________________________________________________________________________
Date: Tue, 15 Mar 2005 09:49:53 -0500
From: Pat Missin
Subject: RE: Digest Number 3443 (My dream harmonica)

Yahya Abdal-Aziz
>
>Yeah, looks like they know what they're doing! Why don't you
>email Jimmy Gordon there; he's the one who has "experimented
>with different tunings" and offers to create "alternate tunings".

It should be noted that when harmonica players talk of "alternate
tunings" they are usually referring to alternatives to the standard
factory made tunings based around the major triad, rather than
microtonal or xenharmonic tunings. In much the same way that when
guitarists talk about "alternate tunings" they mean alternatives to E
A D G B E.

-- Pat Missin.

www.patmissin.com

________________________________________________________________________

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Daniel A. Wier wrote:

>> www.patmissin.com
>
>I got your links in Favorites now, and I might need your help in the future.

I'd be happy to help wherever I can, either privately or on the list
if you think it would be interest to others. I feel that the harmonica
has great potential as vehicle for alternate tunings.

>(I was listening to a harp player in a klezmer band I found online. He had
>it sounding a lot like a clarinet.)

Shtreiml by any chance?

-- Pat.

From: "Pat Missin"

> Daniel A. Wier wrote:
>
>>I got your links in Favorites now, and I might need your help in the >>future.
>
> I'd be happy to help wherever I can, either privately or on the list
> if you think it would be interest to others. I feel that the harmonica
> has great potential as vehicle for alternate tunings.

I don't know when it'll be, since my finances are so tight right now. And I agree, since harmonica is so inexpensive and portable, a lot more should be done with it.

Now how would you design an instrument to play all or most of Partch's scale?

>>(I was listening to a harp player in a klezmer band I found online. He had
>>it sounding a lot like a clarinet.)
>
> Shtreiml by any chance?

Yes, it was them. Through random browsing I came across their work with a Turkish oudist named Ismail Hakki Fencioglu: http://www.shtreiml.com/turkish.php.

Daniel A. Wier wrote:

>Now how would you design an instrument to play all or most of Partch's
>scale?

A 43 tone harmonica would be something of a challenge. Even if you
could fit all those notes on a to conventional instrument (for example
a typical 3 octave chromatic harmonica has 48 reeds, so that would
only give you a little over a single octave of the full Partch scale),
there would be a limit to what harmonic combinations are possible -
you can't play a blow note against a draw note and you can't play a
button-in note against a button-out note. I think a more productive
approach would be to have a selection of harmonicas that play various
subsets of the full scale. In fact, didn't Partch only have a few
instruments capable of playing all 43 notes to the 2/1?

Of course, there is the possibility of building an entirely new type
of harmonica. There is a German patent (DE2616307) for a harmonica
which uses 53-TET, but the document seems to concentrate on preaching
the advantages of 53-TET, rather than explaining exactly how it is
implemented on the harmonica (I should admit that my reading of German
is rather limited too). Perhaps it would be possible to adapt
something like this to Partch's scale, although for me, part of the
appeal of the harmonica is its simplicity.

As an aside, one of my backburner projects for some times has been to
build a harmonica based on Partch's Diamond Marimba, using a fully
two-dimensional array of holes on a curved mouthpiece, rather than the
usual simple single row of holes. Sadly, projects like this do not pay
my bills...

-- Pat.

Couldn't the reeds be holed so as to produce the octaves?
----- Original Message -----
From: Pat Missin
To: tuning@yahoogroups.com
Sent: 19 Mart 2005 Cumartesi 5:05
Subject: [tuning] Re: My dream harmonica

Daniel A. Wier wrote:

>Now how would you design an instrument to play all or most of Partch's
>scale?

A 43 tone harmonica would be something of a challenge. Even if you
could fit all those notes on a to conventional instrument (for example
a typical 3 octave chromatic harmonica has 48 reeds, so that would
only give you a little over a single octave of the full Partch scale),
there would be a limit to what harmonic combinations are possible -
you can't play a blow note against a draw note and you can't play a
button-in note against a button-out note. I think a more productive
approach would be to have a selection of harmonicas that play various
subsets of the full scale. In fact, didn't Partch only have a few
instruments capable of playing all 43 notes to the 2/1?

Of course, there is the possibility of building an entirely new type
of harmonica. There is a German patent (DE2616307) for a harmonica
which uses 53-TET, but the document seems to concentrate on preaching
the advantages of 53-TET, rather than explaining exactly how it is
implemented on the harmonica (I should admit that my reading of German
is rather limited too). Perhaps it would be possible to adapt
something like this to Partch's scale, although for me, part of the
appeal of the harmonica is its simplicity.

As an aside, one of my backburner projects for some times has been to
build a harmonica based on Partch's Diamond Marimba, using a fully
two-dimensional array of holes on a curved mouthpiece, rather than the
usual simple single row of holes. Sadly, projects like this do not pay
my bills...

-- Pat.

Ozan Yarman wrote:
>
>Couldn't the reeds be holed so as to produce the octaves?

I'm not sure that I follow what you are suggesting. To provide a scale
of 43 notes per octave, a harmonica would require 43 reeds per octave.

-- Pat.

And for the next octave, the reeds could be made to produce the overtones.
----- Original Message -----
From: Pat Missin
To: tuning@yahoogroups.com
Sent: 21 Mart 2005 Pazartesi 3:59
Subject: [tuning] Re: My dream harmonica

Ozan Yarman wrote:
>
>Couldn't the reeds be holed so as to produce the octaves?

I'm not sure that I follow what you are suggesting. To provide a scale
of 43 notes per octave, a harmonica would require 43 reeds per octave.

-- Pat.

Ozan Yarman wrote"
>
>And for the next octave, the reeds could be made to produce the overtones.

Ah - I think I see what you mean. Unfortunately, typical Western style
free reeds do not work like that. You require one reed for each note
to be produced, they do not overblow an octave as beating reeds can be
made to do.

-- Pat.

Why not use reeds that can produce the overtones then? As an alternative, each reed can be split by a hole so as to produce the octave from the fundamental tone.

----- Original Message -----
From: Pat Missin
To: tuning@yahoogroups.com
Sent: 21 Mart 2005 Pazartesi 20:12
Subject: [tuning] Re: My dream harmonica

Ozan Yarman wrote"
>
>And for the next octave, the reeds could be made to produce the overtones.

Ah - I think I see what you mean. Unfortunately, typical Western style
free reeds do not work like that. You require one reed for each note
to be produced, they do not overblow an octave as beating reeds can be
made to do.

-- Pat.

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, "paolovalladolid" <phv40@h...> wrote:
>
> Howard Levy by playing chromatic jazz lines on diatonic harmonicas
> brought attention to Joe Filisko and his harmonica customization
> method. He does this by using note-bending techniques to access notes
> that are not on the default scale. The Filisko method reportedly
> makes it easier for Levy to use his "overblow" technique, a method of
> bending notes up instead of down.
>

Not to forget that already the standard bending playing technique
allows, within certain limits, infinite pitch variations. This makes
the harmonica indeed a good candidate for microtonal music - and also
oriental music, as has been shown by Roland Van Straaten
(www.straaten.com).

Hmm, might be interesting to know how much easier the overblow
technique is with the Filisko method - on a standard harmonica, it is
quite difficult :-(... But you can also retune a standard harmonica so
you can reach all chromatic notes (this is possible in the so-called
"spanish tuning" - AFAIK there are even harmonicas sold in this).

Hans Straub

Ozan Yarman wrote:
>
>Why not use reeds that can produce the overtones then? As an
>alternative, each reed can be split by a hole so as to produce the
>octave from the fundamental tone.

You mean like beating reeds used on saxophones and the like? The
problem here is that in order to speak the correct pitch, these reeds
would require an appropriately sized resonant tube for each reed. This
would mean that instead of carrying around a small pocket sized
instrument, you would have to carry around something like a small
church organ! One of the main reasons for the popularity of
instruments such as the harmonica , the concertina and related
instruments is that it is possible to have a three or four octave
range in a relatively compact instrument, as Western-style free reed
do not require tuned resonators in order to produce specific pitches.
However, there is no way I know for a single free reed to be made to
sound an octave about its fundamental pitch.

-- Pat.

Dear Pat, is there a graphical comparison between the two reeds? I'm just going about proving my ignorance again otherwise.

Sincerely,
Ozan
----- Original Message -----
From: Pat Missin
To: tuning@yahoogroups.com
Sent: 23 Mart 2005 Çarşamba 17:29
Subject: [tuning] Re: My dream harmonica

Ozan Yarman wrote:
>
>Why not use reeds that can produce the overtones then? As an
>alternative, each reed can be split by a hole so as to produce the
>octave from the fundamental tone.

You mean like beating reeds used on saxophones and the like? The
problem here is that in order to speak the correct pitch, these reeds
would require an appropriately sized resonant tube for each reed. This
would mean that instead of carrying around a small pocket sized
instrument, you would have to carry around something like a small
church organ! One of the main reasons for the popularity of
instruments such as the harmonica , the concertina and related
instruments is that it is possible to have a three or four octave
range in a relatively compact instrument, as Western-style free reed
do not require tuned resonators in order to produce specific pitches.
However, there is no way I know for a single free reed to be made to
sound an octave about its fundamental pitch.

-- Pat.

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, "hstraub64" <hstraub64@t...> wrote:
> Not to forget that already the standard bending playing technique
> allows, within certain limits, infinite pitch variations. This makes

Yes, that's the main reason Levy chose to stay with diatonic
harmonicas instead of taking up chromatic.

> Hmm, might be interesting to know how much easier the overblow
> technique is with the Filisko method - on a standard harmonica, it is
> quite difficult :-(... But you can also retune a standard harmonica so

I can't do it on any of mine either. Apparently overblow is
considered an advanced technique. I was able to bend a minor 3rd down
only with a lot of strained effort - on chromatic anything more than a
major 2nd just drops so much in volume as to be unusuable (hence,
again, Levy's reason to not switch to chromatic).

I play viola/electric violin these days, in effect trading one set of
advantages and problems for another.

Paolo

>In fact, didn't Partch only have a few
>instruments capable of playing all 43 notes to the 2/1?

More than a few, perhaps, but they were certainly in the
minority.

>Of course, there is the possibility of building an entirely new type
>of harmonica. There is a German patent (DE2616307) for a harmonica
>which uses 53-TET, but the document seems to concentrate on preaching
>the advantages of 53-TET, rather than explaining exactly how it is
>implemented on the harmonica (I should admit that my reading of German
>is rather limited too). Perhaps it would be possible to adapt
>something like this to Partch's scale, although for me, part of the
>appeal of the harmonica is its simplicity.

I would vote for a harmonica that had a pair (or three) Partchian
hexads interleaved in a way analogous to the "Richter tuning" you
described (it sounds like you already make something with a 7-9-11
on it).

>As an aside, one of my backburner projects for some times has been to
>build a harmonica based on Partch's Diamond Marimba, using a fully
>two-dimensional array of holes on a curved mouthpiece, rather than the
>usual simple single row of holes. Sadly, projects like this do not pay
>my bills...

Wow, sounds cool, but I don't get the curved part. Do you
have a drawing/photo?

-Carl

hstraub64 wrote:
>
>Not to forget that already the standard bending playing technique
>allows, within certain limits, infinite pitch variations. This makes
>the harmonica indeed a good candidate for microtonal music - and also
>oriental music, as has been shown by Roland Van Straaten
>(www.straaten.com).

True - and blues players have been exploiting the microtonal
capabilities of the instrument for the last hundred years or so.

>Hmm, might be interesting to know how much easier the overblow
>technique is with the Filisko method - on a standard harmonica, it is
>quite difficult :-(...

All techniques are much easier on a properly set up instrument and Joe
and his associates set up their instruments to a standard not
achievable with mass produced harmonicas. Even so, these harmonicas do
not play themselves!

>But you can also retune a standard harmonica so
>you can reach all chromatic notes (this is possible in the so-called
>"spanish tuning" - AFAIK there are even harmonicas sold in this).

Hohner did make a couple of versions of this layout, but I'm not sure
that they are currently in production. However, even with standard
bending techniques, it is very difficult to get timbral consistency
from note to note.

-- Pat.

Ozan Yarman wrote:
>
>Dear Pat, is there a graphical comparison between the two reeds?
>I'm just going about proving my ignorance again otherwise.

There is a verbal description of the difference between beating reeds
and free reeds on this page:

http://www.patmissin.com/history/whatis.html

I was planning on adding some diagrams, but I have yet to get around
to that.

-- Pat.

Carl Lumma wrote:

>>As an aside, one of my backburner projects for some time has been to
>>build a harmonica based on Partch's Diamond Marimba, using a fully
>>two-dimensional array of holes on a curved mouthpiece, rather than the
>>usual simple single row of holes. Sadly, projects like this do not pay
>>my bills...
>
>Wow, sounds cool, but I don't get the curved part. Do you
>have a drawing/photo?

At the moment, this is very much a "dream harmonica", as it exists
purely as an idea in my head and as some very rough sketches on paper.

The idea is that instead of having the usual one dimensional
mouthpiece (a simple row of holes where you can move either left or
right), the diamond shape of Partch's marimba would be mapped to a
mouthpiece which allows you to move left/right and up/down. For
playing comfort, this would be best achieved on something like a
hemispherical shape. This does present certain difficulties when it
comes to mounting reeds in the thing, but I hope I can find a
practical solution.

-- Pat.

>>>As an aside, one of my backburner projects for some time has been to
>>>build a harmonica based on Partch's Diamond Marimba, using a fully
>>>two-dimensional array of holes on a curved mouthpiece, rather than the
>>>usual simple single row of holes. Sadly, projects like this do not pay
>>>my bills...
>>
>>Wow, sounds cool, but I don't get the curved part. Do you
>>have a drawing/photo?
//
>The idea is that instead of having the usual one dimensional
>mouthpiece (a simple row of holes where you can move either left or
>right), the diamond shape of Partch's marimba would be mapped to a
>mouthpiece which allows you to move left/right and up/down. For
>playing comfort, this would be best achieved on something like a
>hemispherical shape.

Ah, gotcha. Cool idea!!

-C.

From: "Pat Missin"

> The idea is that instead of having the usual one dimensional
> mouthpiece (a simple row of holes where you can move either left or
> right), the diamond shape of Partch's marimba would be mapped to a
> mouthpiece which allows you to move left/right and up/down. For
> playing comfort, this would be best achieved on something like a
> hemispherical shape. This does present certain difficulties when it
> comes to mounting reeds in the thing, but I hope I can find a
> practical solution.

This is a great idea, I say. Two rows of reeds could be a better alternative to the button in chromatic harmonicas, and I don't think it would create that many problems in mounting for two rows. Three or more rows, on the other hand...

I've already applied the concept to my decatonic otonal 11-limit JI scale. My per-octave reed layout so far:

TOP ROW
Blow: G B\ D
Draw: A C] FL
BOTTOM ROW
Blow: G C E\
Draw: BbL D F]

Should I reverse the rows, reverse top-draw and bottom-blow or otherwise rearrange everything?

Danny Wier wrote:
>
>Two rows of reeds could be a better alternative
>to the button in chromatic harmonicas, and I don't think it would create
>that many problems in mounting for two rows.

There are certainly some advantages to be gained from eliminating the
mouthpiece assembly of the conventional chromatic harmonica. In fact a
few manufacturers already make such things:

http://www.patmissin.com/ffaq/q24.html

>Three or more rows, on the other hand...

... presents some constructional challenges, but hopefully not
insurmountable ones. I'm currently working on a prototype of a three
row instrument which will give full chromaticity and easy
transposition (the layout being based on modes of limited
transposition), whilst still delivering the characteristic sound of
the diatonic harmonica. I'm still trying to come up with good
ergonomics from the player's point of view and I hope I will be
forgiven for not going into detail as I may wish to develop this one
commercially.

Another approach is simply to use several harmonicas at the same time.
This is a very common approach in Asia, where players will use two,
three or more diatonic instruments to get accidentals and additional
harmonies. The facility with which the best players can swap from
instrument to instrument is extremely impressive.

>I've already applied the concept to my decatonic otonal 11-limit JI scale.
>My per-octave reed layout so far:
>
>TOP ROW
>Blow: G B\ D
>Draw: A C] FL
>BOTTOM ROW
>Blow: G C E\
>Draw: BbL D F]
>
>Should I reverse the rows, reverse top-draw and bottom-blow or otherwise
>rearrange everything?

This looks to me like the most logical way to set it up and it would
involve the least reworking of a standard instrument. However,
sometimes it's hard to judge how well a particular layout works until
you actually play the thing.

-- Pat.