ok say you have a equal tuned harp must the note be dead on o cents or can it go a few cents up or down nothing major just a few and still work for playing in key,the reason i ask is because i noticed a just tuned harp has certain notes at different cents to help them harmonize better would that kinda be the same as a equal tuned harp maybe a couple cents off one way or the other,
The reasons are varied but in general harmonicas tuned to Just Intonation have a wider variation in cents than Equal tuned harmonicas. This is to enable the JI tuning to play chords that sound smoother and to enable octaves to be played without beats (i.e. smoothly).
Equal tuned harmonicas sound rougher on the chords and octaves than JI tuned harps and are really more suited to single note playing over multiple positions. Whereas JI tuned harmonicas are more suited to playing music that require more chordal sounds, double stops, octaves, etc (as blues frequently does).
A harmonica can deviate a few cents without any real problem and not sound really out of tune. Over time though as the deviation increases then the harmonica would obviously become audibly out of tune.
Equal tuned harmonicas (from what I remember as I play JI tuned harmonicas) are not tuned totally to 0 cents across the board.
I would recommend searching Pat Missins site or Google for the tuning charts.
Last Edited by on Jan 22, 2010 5:43 AM
