Key G 10315G
Play fast runs and Irish tunes on your harmonica The SESSION STEEL Major Cross from Tony Eyers makes fast tunes easier to play. The instrument was developed for fast bluegrass and Irish tunes. It’s also useful for Irish Folk, Scottish Reels, Jigs, Country tunes and all kind of flute and fiddle tunes. Explore the possibilities of this new tuning.
Listen to the 'Tony Eyers Trio' to see what can be done on MAJOR CROSS tuned instruments - namely a D and a Low D in the video!
|
More details: The MAJOR CROSS tuning, developed by Tony Eyers, allows a major scale to be played in second (or cross) position without any bending. While many players use second position, they often find traditional tunes challenging, due to the bending/overblowing needed for some notes. MAJOR CROSS eliminates this problem. Moreover, as bending/overblowing is generally not needed, Major Cross harmonicas are well suited to the fast speeds common with traditional fiddle tunes. The difference between MAJOR CROSS tuning and the usual Richter tunings is shown below. The “root” note for second or cross position is the two hole draw and this note is used for labeling the instruments as well. Three other positions are available for Major Cross harmonicas. These are:
small: Tony Eyers - Red Haired Boy
Besides very intuitive melody playing the MAJOR CROSS tuning opens new options for playing chordal accompaniment as well! In the table below you can see that the most important chords (major and minor)) are available in a very easy to remember arrangement:
The MAJOR CROSS tuning is labeled in Cross-Position (here G), so the note in 2 draw is the root note and the tone table below shows the MAJOR CROSS in G - however the basis for a MAJOR CROSS in G is a usual Richter tuned diatonic in the key of C: A:B comparison between Major Cross (root note G) and Richter tuning (root note C)
TIP: We added Tony Eyers' MAJOR CROSS tuning to the SEYDEL TabTool: With this tool you can 'translate' standard Richter tabs into MAJOR CROSS tabs very conveniently. Customer report: "I'm a long-time blues harp customer of yours, but only started buying Major Cross harps a couple of years ago. |