good morning gang (smile)))

This post is probably for Frank, but please, if anyone else has any input, jump in!

Frank, somewhere on the board, you did a fair job of explaining to me high & low tuned harmonica keys. Like, "a low tuned key is tuned below the standard "G," and high tuned key is above the standard "F#." Low C and High G are the most common/popular, as you say. (smile))) <--see I did learn something. lol

Is that a full octave lower or higher? When you first explained this, I thought, okay, I'd like to try a low C... but truth be told, that key is not soo easy to find. Marine Band has a high G; and low keys in D, Eb, E, F, & F#. I was thinking a Low D might be nice to try out sometime down the road. But, I'm trying to imagine what this might sound like???

Any input on low tuned keys would be greatly appreciated. Does anybody own low tuned key harmonicas? What do they think?

~always Maria.

About the only company that makes the low C is Bushman, and that is in their Soul's Voice Low Boy series.

If you look at the standard 12 harmonica keys, G is the lowest, and F# is the highest. Low tuned keys are below G, and are (I believe this is the part you were asking about) exactly one octave lower than their standard tuning counterparts. The Very Low F Bushman Souls Voice Low Boy is the only one of these that doesn't follow that rule. It's 2 octaves below the standard tuning. That's because they offer the Low F in the regular Soul's Voice. You don't have to pay the extra for the Low Boy model to get it.

The high keys are exactly one octave above their standard counterparts, which puts them above the standard F#.

I do not own any, but I can draw you this diagram to show you how the holes line up.

BLOW____________LOW______________________________________________________________________HIGH
Very Low Tuned: | +1| +2| +3| +4| +5| +6| +7| +8| +9|+10|
Low Tuned.....: |___|___|___| +1| +2| +3| +4| +5| +6| +7| +8| +9|+10|
Standard Tuned: |___|___|___|___|___|___| +1| +2| +3| +4| +5| +6| +7| +8| +9|+10|
High Tuned....: |___|___|___|___|___|___|___|___|___| +1| +2| +3| +4| +5| +6| +7| +8| +9|+10|

Since the draw pattern from 1-4, 4-7, & 7-10 is different in each section of the harp, I have left the draw notes out of the chart, but it works quite nicely for the relation between the blow notes.

For standard harmonicas, the blow 4 starts the primary octave in the key of the harp, so on a harp tuned low, the blow 4 is equal to the blow 1 on the standard harp, & on the high tuned, the blow 4 is equal to the blow 7 on a standard harp.

Thanx soo much Frank. (smile))) That was an amazin' post! I just knew that if I asked, you'd give me a complete anwser. In fact, I often print your responses off this board for my harmonia notebook. (grin))

~always Maria.

I have a Hohner Marine Band Model # 364 in key of C, it has 12 holes and a wood comb. It is one octave below middle C. The sound is very mellow
and pleasant. I find that I can play a lot more tunes on this harp easier and without the high pitched shrill sound. Also it still sounds pretty good after having it for five years, and I tend to be a heavy blower.
Irv.