Harmonica
IMPORTED REVISION FROM WIKISPACES
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- This revision was by author hstraub and made on 2011-08-15 16:22:43 UTC.
- The original revision id was 246088487.
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Original Wikitext content:
=Microtonal harmonica= All instruments with free metal reeds can, principally, be retuned. In the case of harmonicas, it is even sort of common practice - just a little tricky, though. Step-by step instructions how to retune harmonicas (and a lot of other information on harmonicas and tuning) can be found on [[http://www.patmissin.com/tunings/tunings.html|Pat Missin's homepage]]. Not to forget is that, in the case of the diatonic harmonica (aka "blues harp"), the playing technique known as "bending" already allows (within certain limits) infinite pitch variations, even without retuning. For example, it is possible to play a near-[[5edo]] scale on a standard harmonica: [[http://xenharmonic.wikispaces.com/space/showimage/Harmonica5EDO.mp3|Harmonica5EDO.mp3]] Or [[Arabic, Turkish, Persian|arabic maqams]]: [[http://xenharmonic.wikispaces.com/space/showimage/HarmonicaMaqamNairuz.mp3|A scale of maqam Nairuz (of the Rast family)]] These points (and the fact that the instrument is small and cheap) make the harmonica a good candidate as a gateway to microtonal music.
Original HTML content:
<html><head><title>Harmonica</title></head><body><!-- ws:start:WikiTextHeadingRule:0:<h1> --><h1 id="toc0"><a name="Microtonal harmonica"></a><!-- ws:end:WikiTextHeadingRule:0 -->Microtonal harmonica</h1> <br /> All instruments with free metal reeds can, principally, be retuned. In the case of harmonicas, it is even sort of common practice - just a little tricky, though.<br /> <br /> Step-by step instructions how to retune harmonicas (and a lot of other information on harmonicas and tuning) can be found on <a class="wiki_link_ext" href="http://www.patmissin.com/tunings/tunings.html" rel="nofollow">Pat Missin's homepage</a>.<br /> <br /> Not to forget is that, in the case of the diatonic harmonica (aka "blues harp"), the playing technique known as "bending" already allows (within certain limits) infinite pitch variations, even without retuning. For example, it is possible to play a near-<a class="wiki_link" href="/5edo">5edo</a> scale on a standard harmonica:<br /> <br /> <a class="wiki_link_ext" href="http://xenharmonic.wikispaces.com/space/showimage/Harmonica5EDO.mp3" rel="nofollow">Harmonica5EDO.mp3</a><br /> <br /> Or <a class="wiki_link" href="/Arabic%2C%20Turkish%2C%20Persian">arabic maqams</a>:<br /> <br /> <a class="wiki_link_ext" href="http://xenharmonic.wikispaces.com/space/showimage/HarmonicaMaqamNairuz.mp3" rel="nofollow">A scale of maqam Nairuz (of the Rast family)</a><br /> <br /> These points (and the fact that the instrument is small and cheap) make the harmonica a good candidate as a gateway to microtonal music.</body></html>