Hello to everyone here from a newbie.
I’m new here and I hope someone has come across this problem before
I have just received my new Super Chronomica 270 and I seem to have a problem with the hole 4 draw, which goes down in pitch from hole 4 blow instead of up. Is this an issue with my technique or could the instrument be faulty?
Thanks you in advance,
Roy
Jump from 4 to whole Blow on whole 5. Same as whole 8,9.
Thanks Rascal for the information, it’s much appreciated. Strange thing, but I got the C major notes from a Hohner instruction manual I downloaded. These instructions were obviously from many years ago; I’m talking maybe 1940s or 1950s but may have been even earlier. So maybe they changed the layout sometime since then.
Anyway, thanks to you I know my new harp is just fine.
Cheers👍
Hi Roy,
as Rascal rightly says, your harmonica is fine. The tonal layout has not changed since the instrument was introduced. Let me try to explain how it works:
The 270 chromatic harmonica has a range of three octaves. Each octave contains a complete C major scale of 8 notes. This means that the 4th hole in each octave contains a B as draw note and a C as blow note. The next hole up (the first hole of the next octave) also contains a C blow note, so there are 2 C blow notes in adjacent holes. In hole 5 however the draw note is D, just as in hole 1, so that the tonal layout is identical in each octave.
The advantage of this system is that note patterns are the same in all octaves, unlike the diatonic harmonica, where each octave has a different tonal layout.
Hope that helps
Steve
Hello Steve,
Thank you very much for taking the time to explain this to me. I thought you might be interested in how my question came about. I’ve had harmonicas for a few years and although I can play a few simple tunes like ‘Midnight cowboy’ and ‘Sommertime’ (Gershwin), I just learnt by ear and was frustrated because I really didn’t, and still don’t know what I’m doing. I do however feel like I have a real ‘feel’ for the instrument, I just don’t know how to progress.
Anyway, recently I got the bug again and got a new 270 and also researched the basics of playing. This got me looking into the C major scale and I found this article by Hohner which I have just found out was printed in 1931.
EXERCISE 1 THE DIATONIC SCALE OF “C”—
(“Chromonica”’ tuned in “‘C’’)
4B. 4D. 5B 5D 6B 6D 7D 7B
So I thought great, I’d found the place to start but as you’ll be able to see, this is what prompted my initial question. Clearly it’s because I’m ignorant of the basics but I’ll get there.
Thanks again for your time.
The blow/draw hole sequence you have listed is what you find on a standard tuned Richter model such as Blues Harp, Marine Band or Special 20. On a solo tuned chromatic (the standard chrom tuning), the scale would be 5B, 5D, 6B, 6D, 7B, 7D, 8D, 8B, i.e. the same but starting one hole higher. I guess it may be wise to refer to more recent sources for your basic information 
Hi Steve,
Many thanks again for your help. Seems strange to me that if the tuning hasn’t changed since the introduction of the Hohner Chromonica and I was using an official Hohner publication about the same instrument, albeit very old, I can’t see why it was wrong.
Here is the link: https://archive.org/details/how-to-play-the-chromonica-and-super-chromonica/page/4/mode/1up
Roy
Hi Roy
Thanks for the link, very interesting! It shows the reason for your confusion:
The tuning chart in this document shows a 10 hole Chromonica 260, which at that time used the Richter tuning, referred to there as Regular Tuning. The Chromonica 270 however, a 12 hole 3 octave instrument, used (and still uses) the solo tuning system I mentioned above. So basically you were referencing a different model (no longer available) to the one you purchased. This tuning makes sense on 10 hole instruments, but would have made it difficult to play chromatically over the entire range due to the missing notes in hole 3. I presume that’s why the solo tuning established itself as the standard system, as this enabled the player to perform more demanding pieces of music.
Hi Steve,
Many thanks for your help; glad you found it interesting.
Roy