Harp On! Harmonica Altered Tunings

Altered tuned harmonicas are available from Seydel

Other resources for altered tunings

• An essential primer on altered tunings for chromatic harmonica Some Musings On Altered Tunings For the Chromatic Harmonica by Pat Missin
• You can find most of the known tunings for harmonicas in:
  Altered States at Pat Missin's website on the tunings page.
• Overblow by Tinus has altered states for diatonic and chromatic harmonica using a very useful Java program demonstrating scales and keys over any key layout.
• Useful Chromatic Harmonica altered tuning articles & charts written by Max Greco.
• Harping! MIDI harmonica tablature program by Javier handles any harmonica tuning possible.

Altered Tunings of Note

There are many altered tunings that are in use by a number of players:

• For Chromatic Harmonica
  

  Solo tuning has an established place in the chromatic harmonica's short history, all education material & compositions for the chromatic harmonica to date are written on the assumption that solo tuning is in use. That is why it is still here and remains the most popular tuning - by default. And whilst there are some superb musicians using this, it doesn't make it the most practical layout for all musical styles & situations.

  • Bebop Tuning. This is a slight variation on Solo Tuning that has a big impact on the playability of the instrument when playing Jazz. Only two reeds per octave are retuned, on a standard Solo C holes 4, 8 & 12 have both the blow reeds (slide out & slide in) retuned to Bb (slide out) and B (slide in). This removes the C# enharmonic and one of the double C notes, it also removes the breath change required on those holes, instead every hole has the same blow/draw progression up the scale. It also changes the bias of the chromatic layout from just key of C to keys C and F. Therefore it is also known as C/F Bebop Tuning. It changes the blow chords available so that a dominant 7th is introduced and this needs to be accounted for, it also adds additional chordal possibilities. This is more popular than the other tunings because its the least radical change away from Solo Tuning so even those who have played Solo for many years can still adjust to it without losing too much time.
  • Alternate C6 Bebop Tuning. Similar to C/F Bebop however instead of using Bb & B on holes 4, 8 & 12, A/Bb are used. The blow chords are changed to C6 & Db6. This tuning facilitates interesting new opportunities and is used by William Gallison.
  • Classical Tuning. AKA I maj7/ ii min7 Tuning. Very close to solo tuning except that holes 4, 8 and 12 are flipped over so that the breath pattern does not change. For example with Cmaj7 / Dmin7 the first of the two C notes and C# notes are flipped to draw positions, making them much more useful, improving phrasing and enabling more legato phrases. It gives you more chords including Cmaj7, Emin, Dmin7 and F as well as Dbmaj7, Fmin and F#, in addition to many more useful partial chords.
  • Diminished Tuning AKA Dimi AKA Minnie AKA CAT (Chromatic Altered Tuning by Dr Yeadon), a different angle to the chromatic harmonica based on the diminished scale & chords. It provides the player with 1 octave per four holes like Solo tuning, however there is no bias towards any key. There are many partial chord options available, using only minor 3rd intervals, which in today's 12EDO temperament are more sonourous and settled than major 3rds, making the diminished harmonica for good backing and harmonising. The slide is usally set up to sharpen the notes, and because of the evenly spread enharmonics there is plenty of oportunity for smooth transitions. Flat slide, whole tone slide and flat whole tone slide are all practical variations too.
    Personally I have come to rely almost exclusively on diminished tuning for my chromatics, and recommend it to beginners to seasoned players alike. In the long run I find it easier to play by ear and play over complex changes, than solo tuning, or any of the above.
  
  
• For Hohner XB-40. A lot of untapped potential for altered tunings, its early days yet. One of the first tunings being experimented with, is the XB-40 Melody Maker^TM. A tuning Lee Oskar gave the trademark to, when he first brought it out onto the market.
  
  

One thing to realise about new tunings is that it doesn't have to be a monumental task to learn them if approached from the angle of "its a matter of just learning a few new scales". With Diminished there are only a mere three scales to learn.
Once you have them down theres not much difference in the fundementals of the instrument itself, considering what can be gained it maybe worth you spending some time investigating and learning.
The more tools & skills you have available the more options you have and the more likely it will allow you to be a musician who plays music and just happens to use a harmonica, than being a harmonica player working to make their instrument play music.

I have written a short page on Intervalic Theory which explains digital music notation neccessary to understand some of the layouts in the above pages, which makes the entire process much easier to understand.

Music theory webpages on my websites:

Chromatic Harmonica Reference

• Music Theory I
• Music Theory II
  Harmonica Resources
  
• Positions Indicator, Intervals Indicator & Circle of Fifths
• Digital Notation for Intervals
• G on Jazz Harmonica & learning music

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