I've been playing 4-holers, amused by the amount of music possible from them. Most of the Hohners and Huangs I've tried are in tentative tune, at best, but the Oskamonica is better (though, like most LOs, leaky around the reeds) and the little Herring that Farrell sells as its own is excellent, albeit with white plastic scales with their phone number on them. (These things are all about the same size, so you can do adjustments if you like. The best combination I've found yet is to use the comb and reed plates from the Herring and the scales from the Oskamonica.) Anyhow, I was musing about all the posts recently concerning bending, and was wondering if anyone had ever tried to add to the versatility of one of a 4-holer by retuning to take advantage of bends. (I can't overblow one of the things to save my life, but then, I can't overblow a regular 10-hole diatonic, either.) Most 4-hole music being pure melody, i.e., one note at a time, the overall draw chord is not too critical and one might arrange reeds thus:
Hole # 1 2 3 4 ___________________________________ Blow C E G C Draw D F# A Bb ___________________________________ Draw bend C# F G# - Blow bend - - - B
You wouldn't get a whole lot of octaves, but it seems you could get all of the notes for the keys of F, C, G, and D without too much trouble. Anybody ever tried it?
Another subject: I recently acquired a Chordomonica II thanks to some help from folks on the list. I know you chromatic purists (and diatonic performers) don't think much of Chordomincas, but to me, playing mostly straight songs for my own amusement and to terrorize my cat, a Chordominica is a wonderous thing, since it gives the I, IV, V7, dim 7, II-m, and VI-m chords and still allows a certain amount of bending and articulating. Unfortunately, the one that I just got is cracked all the way through the comb at one point, and is missing several windsavers, so I'd really like to get one or more additional ones, key not important. Is anybody out there willing to sell either a collection of the things or individual ones. I understand the going rate for Chordomonica IIs is on the order of $100, and I'm willing to go that or more for prime examples, and beg and plead into the bargain. Let me know what you might be willing to part with. Thanks for the help, if you can give it. AJ (arma~csdo.com)
