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Free Sample Lessons
After watching the BluesHarmonica.com overview video, try one of the lessons below to experience a lesson at BluesHarmonica.com.
- Tongue Blocking Study 2 – This study is for the newer player or the player new to tongue blocking
- Bending Study 5 – This is for the advanced player looking to improve their bending skills
Equal temperament is the safest tuning scheme for a chromatic IF you're going to play it in all keys.
That said, I tend to true up the fifths (C-G, C#-G#, D-A, Eb-Bb) as this is an adjustment of only two cents.
By contrast, imagine that you tuned E down 14 cents to make the C major chord sound true. Then, if you went to play in E, your home note would be 14 cents flat. You see the problem.
HOWEVER, if you intend to play in only one key, such as C, or maybe D minor, then you could tune your home chord to sound good. For instance, for the D minor 6 chord, you could raise the F and A a few cents and lower the B by as much as 14 cents. I've actually tried modeling different possibilities with generated tones poured into a multitrack audio editor and turning off and on different alternative temperings for each note in the chord, with some pretty interesting results.
Also, I tune to A442 so that natural breath-induced pitch depression won't push me below A440. Different players adjust reference pitch anywhere from A441 to A448, depending on their playing style (and pitch standards where they live; in Germany 444 is pretty much standard).