Solo tuning is a system of choosing the reeds for a
diatonic
Diatonic and chromatic are terms in music theory that are most often used to characterize scales, and are also applied to musical instruments, intervals, chords, notes, musical styles, and kinds of harmony. They are very often used as a p ...
wind instrument
A wind instrument is a musical instrument that contains some type of resonator (usually a tube) in which a column of air is set into vibration by the player blowing into (or over) a mouthpiece set at or near the end of the resonator. The pitc ...
(such as a
harmonica
The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica in ...
or
accordion) to fit a pattern where blow notes repeat a sequence of
:
C E G C
(perhaps shifted to begin with E or with G) and draw notes follow a repeating sequence of
:
D F A B
(perhaps correspondingly shifted). Or, alternately, these blow notes and draw notes, raised by a
semitone
A semitone, also called a half step or a half tone, is the smallest musical interval commonly used in Western tonal music, and it is considered the most dissonant when sounded harmonically.
It is defined as the interval between two adjacent no ...
, to
:
C F
G C
and to
:
D F A C
Traditionally, this tuning is used with
chromatic harmonica
The chromatic harmonica is a type of harmonica that uses a button-activated sliding bar to redirect air from the hole in the mouthpiece to the selected reed-plate desired. When the button is not pressed, an altered diatonic major scale of the key ...
s, as opposed to the more common and popular
diatonic harmonicas, which use
Richter tuning
Richter tuning is a system of choosing the reeds for a diatonic wind instrument (such as a harmonica or accordion). It is named after Joseph Richter, a Bohemian instrument maker who adopted the tuning for his harmonicas in the early 19th century ...
.
The first diagram below shows that solo tuning includes all the
major scale
The major scale (or Ionian mode) is one of the most commonly used musical scales, especially in Western music. It is one of the diatonic scales. Like many musical scales, it is made up of seven notes: the eighth duplicates the first at doub ...
notes (C D E F G A B C) for all three octaves, while
Richter tuning
Richter tuning is a system of choosing the reeds for a diatonic wind instrument (such as a harmonica or accordion). It is named after Joseph Richter, a Bohemian instrument maker who adopted the tuning for his harmonicas in the early 19th century ...
has some missing notes such as A and F on the lowest octave. In order to include the four notes D F A B on the draw holes, solo tuning uses four holes for each octave, resulting in pairs adjacent of C notes on the blow holes, unlike
Richter tuning
Richter tuning is a system of choosing the reeds for a diatonic wind instrument (such as a harmonica or accordion). It is named after Joseph Richter, a Bohemian instrument maker who adopted the tuning for his harmonicas in the early 19th century ...
.
For example:
:
and
:
See also
*
Augmented tuning
An augmented tuning is a musical tuning system for musical instruments that is associated with augmented triads, that is a root note, a major third, and an augmented fifth. The augmented fifth is constructed by stacking the major third with an ...
*
Country tuning
*
Diminished tuning
Diminished tuning is a system of choosing the reeds for a diatonic wind instrument (such as a harmonica or accordion) in which the blow notes repeat a sequence of
: C E♭ F♯ A
and draw notes follow a repeating sequence of
: D F G♯ B
(pe ...
*
Harmonic minor tuning
*
Major seventh tuning
*
Melody Maker tuning
*
Natural minor tuning
*
Paddy Richter tuning
*
Richter tuning
Richter tuning is a system of choosing the reeds for a diatonic wind instrument (such as a harmonica or accordion). It is named after Joseph Richter, a Bohemian instrument maker who adopted the tuning for his harmonicas in the early 19th century ...
References
* Chelminski, Rudolph; “Harmonicas are… hooty, wheezy, twangy and tooty”, ''Smithsonian Magazine'', November 1995.
* Häffner, Martin, and Lars Lindenmüller; ''
Harmonica Makers of Germany and Austria: History and Trademarks of Hohner and Their Many Competitors''.
Musical tuning
Free reed aerophones
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