Natural and Harmonic minor, Melody Maker
Natural and Harmonic minor, Melody Maker tunings
I seldom see anyone chatting about the natural minor, harmonic minor and Melody Maker tunings found in Lee Oskar and some Seydel models, etc. I have a few keys in each tuning and find them fun to play. Tell if I'm wrong, but I've read that these tunings were created as an alternate in learning to play chromatic, but to me they seem more like an alternate to position playing on diatonic. And of course what I've read described as more for jazz and ballads, and folk (Natural Minor and Melody Maker) and ethnic (Harmonic Minor) . I plan to research this more, but figured I'd bring it up here first. Thanks in advance
Sorry, I also posted this under the topic "Different tunings" in error. Still learning my way around this site.
Lee understands that 2nd Position is king...
Melody Maker is for playing in major in 2nd Position... so you can play major melodies (that you may otherwise playing in 1st Position) with bending on your I Chord (draw notes)... more expression. "Georgia On My Mind" would be a good example.
Natural Minor is for playing in minor in 2nd Position... so you can play minor melodies (that you may otherwise playing in 3rd or 4th Position) with bending on your I Chord (draw notes)... more expression. "Comin' Home" is a good example.
Lee also knows that there's a world of harmonica players that only play in 1st Position (melody players)...
Harmonic Minor is for playing in minor in 1st Position (other than the standard major). There's many countries where minor is more common than major and this makes sense for them than major.
The Lee Oskar tunings were not created as an alternative to the chromatic. Instead they simply extend the scales - and chords - you can play on a diatonic. I doubt that Lee was really thinking much about chromatics if at all
With Melody Maker tuning, second position can be used to play a pure major scale with hardly any note bending. It also gives some new major and minor chords.
With Natural Minor tuning, you can play a minor scale in familiar second position instead of learning fourth position and you get rich minor chords along with it.
Harmonic Minor delivers a special type of minor scale that would otherwise require bending. Along with the haunting chords it offers, this position also lets you play minor in first position, the position the harmonica was originally designed to play and widely used in folk traditions around the world.
I know you would much prefer a comment from Winslow or David, or ?
But in the meantime, if you go to www.harmonicamasterclass.com, you will find a book by David Barrett called "Scales, Patterns, and Bending Exercises 2" that covers this very topic in detail.