Richter 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 Scale (music), scales, and are also applied to musical instruments, Interval (music), intervals, Chord (music), chords, Musical note, notes, musical sty ...
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 inclu ...
or
accordion
Accordions (from 19th-century German ''Akkordeon'', from ''Akkord''—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a reed ...
). It is named after Joseph Richter, a Bohemian instrument maker who adopted the tuning for his harmonicas in the early 19th century and is credited with inventing the blow/draw mechanism that allows the harmonica to play different notes when the air is drawn instead of blown.
Richter tuning is designed as a compromise between diatonic melody and harmony. The lower portion of the harmonica is designed to play the tonic and dominant chords on the blow and draw respectively (in the key of C, this would be the C major and G major chords). The remainder of the instrument is tuned to, in this example, blow entirely in the key of C major, with each successive note following the sequence
:
C E G
and the four notes not in the C major chord arranged on the draw in the sequence
:
D F A B.
For example:
:
The above diagram shows that Richter tuning has some missing notes, notably A and F are absent from the lowest octave (draw notes in holes 3 and 4). By comparison,
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 double i ...
notes (C D E F G A B C) for all octaves.
Variants
There have been many variants of Richter tuning.
Country tuning
Country tuning raises the initial
F 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 an
F. This primarily aids in harmony in the key of G, facilitating easy play of the G-C-D (I-IV-V) chord progression, while maintaining a partial G7 (minus the root) higher on the harmonica. It can occasionally be helpful in some melodies, most notably "
The Star-Spangled Banner
"The Star-Spangled Banner" is the national anthem of the United States. The lyrics come from the "Defence of Fort M'Henry", a poem written on September 14, 1814, by 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet Francis Scott Key after witnessing the b ...
," which has a low F# and a high F. For example:
:
(Compare this to major seventh tuning, below.)
Harmonic minor tuning
Harmonic minor tuning is a variation in which
E is replaced by
E and
A is replaced by
A. Thus the blow notes repeat a sequence of
:
C E
G
(perhaps shifted to begin with E or with G) and draw notes at some point begin to follow a repeating sequence of
:
D F A B
though perhaps with a different initial sequence.
For example:
:
Major seventh tuning
Major seventh tuning raised each
F by a semitone to
F♯. For example
:
(Compare this to country tuning, above.)
Melody Maker™ tuning*
Melody Maker™ tuning* raises the third Blow (Exhale) note by a full note, and raises the #5 Draw by a semitone to
F. For example:
:
Note: the Melody Maker™ tuning is key labeled from the Draw (Inhale) Second Position.
The example above shows a Melody Maker™ in the Key of G.
*The Melody Maker™ tuning was developed by Lee Oskar Harmonicas in the early 1980s.
Natural minor tuning
Natural minor tuning is a variation in which
E is replaced by
E and
B is replaced by
B. Thus the blow notes repeat a sequence of
:
C E
G
(perhaps shifted to begin with E or with G) and draw notes at some point begin to follow a repeating sequence of
:
D F A B
though perhaps with a different initial sequence.
For example:
:
Paddy Richter tuning
Paddy Richter tuning (developed by
Brendan Power
Brendan Power is a New Zealand harmonica player, composer and inventor, living in Britain.
Born in Mombasa, Kenya, Power's family moved to New Zealand in 1965 where he later attended Canterbury University at Christchurch, gaining a Bachelor of Ar ...
) allows a two octave scale suitable for melody-based music. It was developed with Irish jigs, reels and hornpipes in mind but is suitable for other melodic music also; it allows pentatonic scales in the stated key and up a fifth; for instance, an instrument in the key of G can play both the G and D major pentatonic scales throughout the length of the instrument). The tuning raises the 3 blow by a whole step e.g. from D to E on a G harp; this addition of the sixth also allows melodies on a harmonica's corresponding minor scale (e.g. E minor on a G harmonica) to be played an octave lower than would otherwise be possible without bending. The addition of this, however, adds an additional complication to playing harmonic music on the harmonica, requiring the 3 hole to be blocked when playing a tonic chord. The lower octave requires a bend on the 2 draw to achieve a missing note (on a G harmonica, a C when playing in G, or a C# when playing in D), which is also required on standard Richter-tuned harmonicas.
For example:
:
(above Paddy Richter tuning was checked on a Paddy Richter G Harp using an electronic Chromatic Tuner)
Richter Extended tuning
So-called Richter Extended tuning is in fact a significant departure from Richter tuning. In "Richter extended tuning," all Fs and As are removed from the instrument, and the dominant (G) chord is, like C on the blow, extended through all of the holes on the draw, following the sequence
:
D G B.
For example:
:
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 anot ...
*
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
( ...
*
Dorian Cross tuning
Dorian may refer to:
Ancient Greece
* Dorians, one of the main ethnic divisions of ancient Greeks
* Doric Greek, or Dorian, the dialect spoken by the Dorians
Art and entertainment Films
* ''Dorian'' (film), the Canadian title of the 2004 film ...
*
Scale tuning
Scale or scales may refer to:
Mathematics
* Scale (descriptive set theory), an object defined on a set of points
* Scale (ratio), the ratio of a linear dimension of a model to the corresponding dimension of the original
* Scale factor, a number w ...
*
Solo tuning
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''.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Richter Tuning
Musical tuning