Inspired by jazzmaan's work on his DM48
, I've been having a more in depth look at the Spiral 5ths tuning. I was thinking about what the best layout might be in terms of range.
I reckon that starting with hole one blow at G3 is a pretty good way to go with this for slide out blow and draw lines.
Blow - G B D F# A C#E Ab B Eb F# Bb
Draw - A C E G B D F#A C#E Ab B
This is kind of like violin tuning in range - from G3 to C7 at hole 12 slide in draw (when playing sharp slide of course). The range is greater than on a solo tuned 12 hole chromatic, with a full 3 octaves in the keys of G, Ab, A, Bb, B and C.
But what makes this tuning of particular interest is the number of usable chords and double stops it contains. The chord pattern is completely consistent. The Blow line has triads alternating between major and minor - GBD Major, then BDF# minor and so on. This pattern is reversed in the Draw line - ACE minor, then CEG Major and so on, with exactly the same alternating patterns for the slide in blow and draw lines. And it turns out that this alternating pattern is exactly the same whether playing with sharp or flat slide.
The way I think of this tuning is similar to the way I play my guitar, when I am always looking to play double stops all the way along the line - just for added ornamentation and expression. So if I had this set-up in chromatic, that's how I would be playing. Of course I wouldn't play double stops or triads on every note, but it would indeed be a great thing to have that option.
There is also a good case for starting a Spiral 5ths chromatic on Eb3
. Then you would have an Eb - Bb - F spiral on the blow line, which might be preferred by jazz players.
