Zarlina Tuning

[Max]

Hi folks,

I’ve created my own harmonica tuning, designed to give you easy and consistent chords and scales in eight keys: Eb, Bb, F, C, G, D, A, and E.  Maybe some of you will find it useful. I use it on my DM48X as well as on my configured acoustic harmonicas: :

https://www.reddit.com/r/harmonica/comments/1tm5pz9/the_seydel_nonslider_and_the_zarlina_tuning/

Have fun! :)

[Erik L]

Sounds useful!

A general note on tunings: the DM48(X) can both export and import tunings, so in principle you could generate a MIDI file with this tuning for others to import via their favorite sequencer.

The DM48(X) should then be used as output MIDI device to receive notes - just put the instrument in “Tuning receive” mode and play it back. These features are accessible via the tuning editor on the DM48(X). See manual if needed.

Erik

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[Max]

Hi Eric, 

thanks for this hint. I've tried it, opened the tuning editor, moved around till the menu appeared and recorded the tuning into this midi file.

Have fun! :)

[Max]

A new Zarlina web app, featuring all chords and scales, is now available online. In addition to the standard tables, you can use two search tools to look up more specialized (jazz) chords and scales.

Zarlina Web App

The app is especially useful when you’re first learning and practicing new pieces. Once you’ve understood the simple basic principle behind Zarlina and committed it to muscle memory, you won’t need the tables anymore.

[John DeFranco]

Max,

This is awesome and definitely something I want to try out. I’ve been meaning to post about my own custom tuning setup, which comes at the problem from a different direction. I chose an 8 note scale to fit into the octave repeats without repeated notes like in solo tuning and without inverting the blow/draw order per octave. The extra note comes from the Barry Harris 6th Diminished scale and looks like this:

Hole:   1   2   3   4  |  5   6   7   8  |  9  10  11  12
Blow:   C   E   G   A  |  C   E   G   A  |  C   E   G   A
Draw:   D   F   Ab  B  |  D   F   Ab  B  |  D   F   Ab  B

So in C, this gives you:

Blow = C6/Am7 (C E G A)

Draw = D°7 (D F Ab B — every inversion of the same diminished chord)

Besides having a regular breathing pattern for the major scale (skipping the b6 if you want) in any octave, you get a tension/release from draw/blow since the diminished chord can function as a rootless dominant of the key (G7 b9 in C). 

Further, lowering any one draw note gives you one of four important dominant chords in the key: G7 (lowering Ab), Db7 (lowering D) the tritone sub, E7 (lowering F) the V-of-vi, and its tritone Bb7 (lowering B). I set up my slide button to lower a half step instead of raising since that gives me more access to approach notes from below, more common in jazz. I also have one of the arrow buttons set to raise a half step, which I use less often. By raising or lowering by a half step, the draw diminished arpeggio covers all diminished chords and all chromatic notes. 

I’ve also found that the extra b6 note pops up a lot in jazz standards as a iv –> I resolution. 

Anyway, I’ve found it quite nice to play on and I hope some of you try it. Thanks again, Max, for the inspiration.

John

[Max]

Thanks, John — that’s a very interesting tuning concept!

The C6 / diminished relationship is a clever way to organize tension and release, especially for jazz harmony. I can see how that would work nicely in a Barry Harris / 6th-diminished context.

My Zarlina tuning is coming from a different angle, though. The main idea is not to optimize one harmonic system around C6 and diminished chords, but to create a consistent layout where scales and chords keep the same movement patterns across several practical keys.

I understand that circle-based layouts can feel strange at first. But in Zarlina, every movement exists in two versions: once on blow and once on draw. So after you learn a jump or movement once, you can use the same movement pattern in all modes across eight keys.

In practice, this becomes automatic surprisingly quickly. You don’t have to relearn every key as a separate landscape. A movement you learn in one place keeps its harmonic meaning elsewhere.

For anyone trying the Zarlina layout, I would recommend starting very simply: stay in C major at first and get familiar with the geometry.

A good exercise is to learn each small tune or phrase in two different octaves right from the beginning. At first this feels a little unusual, but after a few days the octave shift becomes automatic and you stop thinking about it.

The full chord accompaniment is also something quite new on a harmonica. For that, I would suggest borrowing ideas from guitar players: simple strumming patterns, broken chords, arpeggios, bass-chord alternation, and rhythmic accompaniment figures.

Don’t try to use all eight keys immediately. First learn how the layout “breathes” in one key. Once the basic movements are in your body, the same geometry opens up the other keys much more easily.

Later, transposing a piece to another key is not a major problem, because the movement patterns remain the same. You do not have to relearn the piece from scratch in every key — you mainly move the same geometry to a different starting point, using the lower row for the sharps and flats.

That is really the core of the Zarlina idea:

• easy access to diatonic scales

• consistent major/minor chord shapes

• the same scale and chord logic in eight useful keys

• no repeated note like the doubled C in standard solo tuning

• a layout that also works on real acoustic harmonicas, not only on the DM48X

Thanks again for the feedback and for sharing your approach — this is exactly the kind of discussion I was hoping for.

Have fun! :)