Melody Maker

If you take a Lee Oskar Melody Maker in G and a Lee Oskar standard major key harp in C and trade the top reed plates from one harp to the other you will then have a Paddy Richter in C and a Country tuned (raised draw 5) in C. Not the kind of work I want to do in the middle of a public performance or even in a jam session, but if you know ahead of time you might be needing a Paddy or a Country then it is an option. Only takes 5 minutes and a screw driver. Other combinations are possible. A Melody Maker in D and a Richter in G will become a Paddy in G and a Country in G when swapping plates. Country tuned harps are designed to play in 2nd so the Country C plays in G and the Country G plays in D.

Hi Dezzy. The two most popular ways of playing the harmonica are 1st position and 2nd position. 1st position allows you to play lots of folk tunes without bending notes. 2nd position is what most pros are using most of the time you hear a harmonica in a band. It is a more fluid and expressive way of playing and makes use of bending notes. However, in 2nd position the draw 5 is the flat 7 of the major scale. This is good for blues but not so good if you want to play a melody that uses the major 7th. By raising the draw 5 half a step you can play a complete major scale from draw 2 to blow 6. You will need to bend the draw 3 to complete the scale but the complete scale is available. Now you have the melody capability of 1st position and the expresiveness of 2nd position all in one package. Some famous players who use Country tuning are Charlie McCoy and Buddy Greene. Look them up on Youtube. Steve Baker is a very accomplished professional who sometimes uses Country tuning. He prefers to call it Major 7th tuning. It is good for more than just Country music. He has an excellent demo:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptkCrQBW7LU

Rex, my melody maker is key G. I have a lee Oskar in KeyC. So I’ll soon have a Paddy Richter and a Country tuned in C.
Does that mean I don’t have a Key G anymore?

OK Rex, now I have two different tuned harmonicas. I wasn’t using them as Melody Maker and a G keyed diatonic. I’ll watch the music I have and try out these tunings. Once I bought Seydel the Lee Oskars sounded too weak but O K through a microphone. I still have an old Horner that I tuned blow 3 to an A so another Paddy Richter in C.

Joe jazz, yes you just have to try them to find what you want. We all differ.

I recently retuned a G harmonica to a D MM.
some tabs might be nice for getting some familiarity with the tuning.