Why not using country tuning and forget about Major?
OK
This country tuning has one more extra notes on 5 hole draw and for some songs it makes it much easier
Every other thing is the same so why not just forget about Major and play country tuning ?
Is there any other thing that it has effect on? Does it make any more difference?
Thanks I am not too much interested in blues, Not that I don't like it but I prefer pop songs and other songs :)
Country tuning can open up new possibilities. It makes fifth position more friendly, and gives you all three major chords in second position. However, it creates problems for melodies in first position, as the raised Draw 5 is not a note in that scale.
I use country tunning occasionally, and like what it can do. But if I'm looking to play something more bluesy, it can get in the way. It's still possible to bend that note down to the regular note - but you ahve to remember to do that when needed - and it eliminates some chordal combinations.
You mean for me who is not in blues business it is perfectly fine ? Here I go tuning many harmonicas to Country tuning :)
Country tuning has benefits for many positions, starting with second. But it will take away your ability to play major-scale melodies in first position in the middle octave.
Im playing counytry tuned sydel steels and the draw 5 will bend back down the flat 7th for 1st pos but i best learn a song on the country tuned harp or I'll forget to bend the draw 5 back down and it's a jarring thing to the ear when you hit that raised note in 1st pos
Im playing counytry tuned sydel steels and the draw 5 will bend back down the flat 7th for 1st pos but i best learn a song on the country tuned harp or I'll forget to bend the draw 5 back down and it's a jarring thing to the ear when you hit that raised note in 1st pos
whocares:
This might be a great question to post on Winslow's "Ask Harmonica Expert Winslow Yerxa" section of this Forum. And in the meantime, don't be timid about playing different musical styles using different tunings. Switching from one tuning system to another is a great (and really fun) way to exercise the brain cells.
By "one more exta notes" I assume you mean that the 5-draw is tuned up (i.e., sharp) by one semitone. In second position this converts the 7th note in the scale (e.g., in the G scale on a C harp played in 2nd position, the F) to a major 7th, rather than the usual Richter-tuned flatted 7th, which works great for folk songs, pop, etc., but not so much for blues. There's a good explanation at https://harmonicatunes.com/country-harmonica-tuning/
I don't have any country-tuned harps; however, over the past year (and in part to keep from going nuts during pandemic isolation) I've picked up two Seydel Tony Eyers "Major Cross" harmonicas, in G and D, the most common keys for Irish folk tunes, and have been learning some Irish stuff. The tuning works great, not only for Irish, but for some classic Great American Songbook tunes (e.g., "Over the Rainbow," "As Time Goes By," etc.), such that I'm no longer playing some melody-tuned harmonicas I own (e.g., Lee Oskar "Melody Maker" and Seydel "Melodic Maker"), and giving them away, aiming when budget allows to pick up some other keys in the "Major Cross" model.
But for blues: I'm sticking with standard Richter tuning. For one thing, it's the traditional tuning for blues, going back to the first folks in the U.S. who back in the 19th Century bought an inexpensive Marine Band and began experimenting with different positions and bending, and thus the basis for recorded performances going back to the 1920s, through all the greats from John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson, to Rice Miller, to Little Walter Jacobs, to Junior Wells, up through today's greats. For another: It's the tuning system used by David for his lessons and studies here that use 10-hole diatonic harmonicas.
-Rob