5 replies to this topic

[Dauber]

(For those of you who are new to blues harp, the blues is typically played on what's called a "diatonic" harp -- such as the Marine Band, Special 20, Blues Band, etc., as opposed to, say, a chromatic harp...)

I'm curious...

During my first Chicago blues harp class, my instructor talked about how the diatonic harmonica was invented in Germany as basically a poor-man's instrument that can still play along with accordions, etc., and is literally a mouth organ, but because it's a budget instrument, it's limited in what it can play.

Now...it's tuned to the diatonic scale, and as such, there are some notes missing, as opposed to a chromatic harmonica, which has all twelve notes of the scale.

And my instructor explained that Hohner et al. never intended the harmonica to have all the notes, and finding other notes via note-bending was an accidental discovery.

Now...I dunno, I'm a bit skeptical about that...because even though there are missing notes on a diatonic harmonica, you can play every single missing note by bending...that makes me think the harmonica was always intentionally built that way...

Any experts know what the deal is???

[FatJim]

AFAIK the notes were originally laid out so that a harp can play chords (in it's labelled key and the relative minor) at the bottom end, and melodies in the middle register. This is why you have incomplete scales at the bottom and complete ones at the top. The multitude of bends at the bottom end really are an accident that have arisen from laying the notes out for chord playing. Cross harp and note bends were discovered when the harp hit the Delta and became a blues instrument (probably more to do with its price than anything else). I'd say your instructor is right. Pat Missin's page http://www.patmissin.com/ffaq/q37.html has an interesting article, but it doesn't really answer your question. If Pat Missin doesn't know, then I'd say nobody does - he's the world expert in my book. His closing statement is interesting: no-one really knows about how the harmonica evolved - it seems it wasn't considered important enough to document.

[Atomic_Rat]

The Chinese had a musical gizmo, that sounded a bit like a harmonica, called a sheng, for centuries prior to the Diatonic or the simple harmonicas of Europe. The free-reed principal used in the creation of accordians and saxophones led to the invention of the Diatonic in the 19th century by Natalie Ann Cummins, of whom I have discoverd very little is written.

Shlomomusic.com explains the concept of the free-reed principal: A free-reed instrument is any type of wind instrument on which each note is produced by air being forced through a narrow channel, either by blowing in or sucking out, to strike a thin strip of bamboo or metal tuned to a specific note. The strip, called a reed, then vibrates freely within its slot, in a greater frame of reeds, to produce the given note, hence the namefree-reed.

Around the mid 1800s, Hohner began to mass produce them for Europe and America. Because Hohner mass produced them, it was claimed the harmonica/Diatonic was invented also by him (or Friedrich Buschmann--who owned the patents--, or other clock-makers, depending on whose book you read). The 1800s were a time of free-for-all battles over patents--the first one to get a patent in was the 'inventor' whether actually true or not (the case of Alexander Graham Bell and the telephone is one example). Many 'inventors' were not the actual creators of their products as they claimed but they did own the patent and to the male-dominated world of Europe and the US, that was all that mattered.

[harmonicatunes]

FatJim has it right. The harmonica was originally designed to play chords out of left hand side of the mouth, and melody out of the right hand side. Everyone used to play it that way, now few do.

Good luck with the lessons!

[Atomic_Rat]

My response was INCORRECT concerning the history and thanks to FatJim for putting the record straight.

Ok, from what I have discovered, thanks to FatJim at Blues Brothers Central : The Internet's Largest Blues Brothers Fansite, is that this Natalie Ann Cummins was added to the Wikipedia by vandals, who knows when? She is a student at Foothill High School (Santa Ana, California)-- Foothill High School (Santa Ana, California) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
where she is ICC President- Natalie Cummins. Apparently I was not the only one duped by this imposter and vandal but other website info as well.

Sheesh. The first time I've been taken by a hoax on the web and it had to do with the harmonica!

[FatJim]

You're correct in saying that free reed instruments have been around for centuries and originated in the far-east. I have an instrument from Thailand called a Khaen (pronounced "Ken"), similar, but even more rudimentary than the Chinese Sheng.

BTW the Sax is not a free reed instrument - the note is dependent on the length of the column of air and not the vibration of the reed itself. This puts it and related instruments like the clarinet and oboe into the category of reed pipes. This is a very useful guide to the taxonomy of instruments http://www.ksanti.net/free-reed/description/taxonomy.html Sorry to come across a bit pedantic, but it sounds like you're doing a bit research into this subject and thought it might help :-)

When I said that the evolution of the harp is a bit of a mystery I was really meaning the more recent (19th onwards) developments. Noone is even clear who invented the harmonica (don't worry about getting taken in by that hoax - noone else spotted it in over a year!) Buschmann is often cited, but apparently there is evidence of harmonica like instruments that predate him. Richter's contribution is cited as adding the second reedplate, so that the instrument could be played on the blow and the draw. Again there is evidence that other people were making instruments in this arrangement before him though. As for Matthias Hohner, he was just an innovator in terms of mass production techniques and contributed very little to the actual evolution of the instrument, but without his manufacturing and marketing skill we probably wouldn't even be having this discussion. As I said before (and as you seemed to have found out from your research) there are very few definitive answers.