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Newton Fourkey, similarity to Spanish tuning
Gnarly He Man:
Hi—
I just dug out a 10 hole diatonic I had retuned to Fourkey—
| C c# | D e | F f# | G g# | A b |
And recognized the similarity to Spanish tuning—
|C e | F g# | A b |
In both cases the “chord” is F blow, E draw. On the Fourkey, these are pentatonics.
Anybody using either of these tunings?
John Broecker:
Hello, Gnarly.
I've never tried Four-key tuning, but I've played the
F major/E major "Spanish Tuning" on a special order
Hohner Pro-Harp, described as "F/E draw bending".
On these charts, the Large letters are upper reed plate
reeds, small letters are lower reed plate reeds:
|| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 ||
||A b |C e |F g# |A b |C e |F g# |A b |C e |F g# |A b ||
and the "F/E draw and blow bending":
|| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 ||
||A b |C e |F g# |A b |C d |F eb |A gb |C bb |F db |A gb ||
|| (E7 draw bending) || (Ebm7 blow bending) ||
The two harps were also called "Demmler System" harps.
In the 1990 Hohner English language (USA) catalog, the
Hohner Pro-Harp was available in all Natural Minor and
Harmonic Minor factory keys, and low F and high G.
I was more comfortable with the phyrgian mode on a standard
Richter diatonic harp (5th position), for Spanish music, mostly
in the lower-keyed harps. That was back in the early - mid 1990s.
Best Regards, Stay Healthy
JB
The Hermann Gottlieb
of Harmonicas.
Gnarly He Man:
I received a PentaHarp as a gift from Mike Peace, and retuned it to Spanish—at that point, I thought I should let him have another whack at it.
I think he likes it well enough, I will report back with his impression.
SlideMeister:
I seem to remember, that's pretty much all "Jazzman" (David Merryweather?) used to talk about.
Gnarly He Man:
Yes, the LeGato is a slide version of Newton Fourkey.
The interesting thing about N4K is that the “four keys” lie between the two pentatonics.
So F blow, E draw, those two keys are one flat and four sharps, the four keys are C, G, D,and A—
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