Add Harmonicas to the Instruments.xml list for 2.0

• Mar 18, 2012 - 18:57
Type
Functional
Severity
S5 - Suggestion
Status
closed
Project

I would like the following harmonica to added to the list of instrument:
Diatonic, Bass, Chordet, Chord


Comments

Hi Snowman :)

I am currently working on the Instruments.xml list for 2.0, and am at the stage now where I am addressing surprising omissions in the list.

Can you let me have range information for these harmonicas - I accept that the diatonic harmonicas may well be tuned in different keys, so I will also need any transposition information that might be necessary, together with clef information.

I guess all things come to he who waits :)

Regards
Michael

Hi ChurchOrganist,

As promised your are back on our harmonica stuff.

Can you be more specific as to what information you need? We want diatonic, chordette, chord, and bass to be added. We should also add chromatic.

Diatonic comes in different keys, chordette comes in different but do not have information other than the one I use.
All Bass are chromatic and comes in different models and keys. (http://www.bassharp.com/bh_101.htm)
Chordette, one model, and come in only one setup.
Chord are manufacturer by 2 company but the key setup is the same.

BTW, Did you had a chance to look at the Harmonica font?

Regards
Michel

Hi Michel
The information I require is:

1. The note range of the instruments, preferably in MIDI note numbers, but scientific pitch notation would be ok
2. Which clef each instrument uses.
3. Whether the instrument is transposing (ie does it play notes in a different key from that written)

I'm afraid the font is beyond my remit, I am merely revamping the Instruments.xml file - do you know who is working on that?

Regards
Michael

Status (old) active patch (ready to commit)

Just finished adding the Harmonica details you sent me, and sent a pull request to MuseScore on GitHub

I will need more info on the tab if it is to be included in the instruments.xml file, but at least the instruments are there :)

Hi ChurchOrganist,

I though all you needed was on the excel sheet I sent you. What information did I missed?

Regards

Firstly are any of the harmonicas treated as transposing instruments?

ie is the music for the D diatonic harmonica written in C but the harmonica plays D?

Secondly I have made conjectures about the clefs used, but it would be helpful if you would confirm them.

Status (old) patch (ready to commit) fixed

Incidentally the latest version of instruments.xml is now in the nightly builds.

So please check for any inconsistencies.

And change the issue status if necessary

Hi,

I looked at the information you put in instruments.xml and it is accurate.

At the time we submit our excel file, we were missing the information on the 48 notes Chord. How can we submit the information to include it in instruments.xml?

Hi,

I found the details about the missing harmonica. However I could not find how to translate it from note to Midi. Can you make sense of it?

This should complete the harmonica description. There are more, as can be seen in the attached document below.

HOHNER #267 or SUZUKI SCH-48, CHROMATICA MODERN 48 CHORD HARMONICA TABLATURE

Top Deck Blow | Gb | Db | Ab | Eb | Bb | F | C | G | D | A | E | B | Major chords
Draw | Db7 | Ab7 | Eb7 | Bb7 | F7 | C7 | G7 | D7 | A7 | E7 | B7 | F#7 | Dominant 7ths

Low Deck Blow |Gbm |Dbm |Abm |Ebm |Bbm |Fm |Cm |Gm |Dm |Am |Em |Bm | Minor chords
Draw |Db+ |Ab-7| Eb+ |Bb-7 |Bb+ |C-7 |G+ |D-7 |A+ |E-7 |E+ |F#-7| Aug.+/dim.-

Thanks

Status (old) needs info active

OK thanks for the info. It looks as though harmonica tab is the province of a plugin rather than able to be included in the instruments.xml file.

At present there is no way of forcing only diatonic notes to be used on an instrument, so it is possible to write notes unplayable by a particular harmonica at present.

This is another issue which you may want to take up with the development team at a future point.

I will be getting the chord harmonica information into instruments.xml sometime during the next couple of weeks.

Even if some notes are not shown in the harmonica tablature, it is possible to alter a draw/blown note to play other notes.

Partition written for harmonica are created to take into account the non-playable notes. This implies that one cannot port just any sheet to an harmonica, as, I assume, it may be the case for other instruments.

Some player uses the note displayed on the sheet, while some prefer the use of altered notes tablature and this is where a plugin would come into use. I am aware that a plugin has been made for diatonic. There are ways to display altered notes that are more intuitive than other from a teaching/playing point of vue. The one I want to use is different than the plugin available and requires some programming skills that I may not have. Still I would like to give it a shot.

Status (old) active fixed

OK guys I'm signing this one off

The Harmonicas requested are now all in Instruments.xml

The tablature plugin is IMO beyond the remit of this feature request

I recently downloaded MuseScore - love the program.

However, I cannot find Harmonica support - there only "Glass Harmonica" under Pitched Percussion group.

Do I need to download a separate instruments.xml file from somewhere?

Thanks.

This thread is for a feature in the upcoming version 2.0, not yet released. You can test it, download the "nightly" version from the Download page. Many harmonica instruments exist in that version.