© 2002 P.Missin

How is my Hohner Chordomonica tuned?

In the late 1960s Hohner marketed two instruments designed by Chamber Huang (now the President of Huang Harmonicas Inc.), the Chordomonica I and the Chordomonica II, designed to play melodies with full chordal accompaniment.

(From Hohner USA's 1968/69 catalog - used with permission)

Chordomonica I

The Chordomonica I was essentially a retuned 10-hole chromatic harmonica, with some of the chromatic tones sacrificed in order to give appropriate harmonies. With the slide in the 'out' position, blowing gives a C major chord and drawing gives a G7:

BLOW C E G C C E G C C E
HOLE 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
DRAW D F G B D F G B D D

With the slide in, blowing gives an F major chord and drawing gives an F# diminished 7th chord:

BLOW C F A C C F A C C F
HOLE 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
DRAW Eb F# A C Eb F# A C Eb F#


Chordomonica II

The Chordomonica II had 12 holes and also gave the C major and G7 chords with the slide out:

BLOW C E G C C E G C C E G C
HOLE 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
DRAW D F G B D F G B D F G B

Not surprisingly, it also gave the F major chord an F# diminished 7th chord with the slide in:

BLOW C F A C C F A C C F A C
HOLE 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
DRAW Eb F# A C Eb F# A C Eb F# A C

However, the Chordomonica II was also equipped with a second slide which selected notes from both the upper and lower reedplates of the harmonica to give the additional chords of A minor and D minor 7th:

BLOW C E A C C E A C C E A C
HOLE 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
DRAW D F A C D F A C D F A C


As well as the key of C, both models were also available in the keys of E, F, G and A. Here is a chart of the chords produced by each key of instrument:

KEY BLOW DRAW BLOW +SLIDE DRAW +SLIDE BLOW +SLIDE(2) DRAW +SLIDE(2)
C C G7 F F#dim7 Am Dm7
E E B7 A Bbdim7 C#m F#m7
F F C7 Bb Bdim7 Dm Gm7
G G D7 C C#dim7 Em Am7
A A E7 D D#dim7 F#m Bm7


Both models were discontinued by Hohner some time in the early 1980s, although they often turn up for sale in places like eBay. Chamber Huang wrote an instruction manual for the instruments, but this is long out of print, however there is an arrangement of "Bury Me Beneath the Willow" for the Chordomonica I in the book "Folk and Blues Harmonica" by George Heaps-Nelson and Barbara Koehler (a beautifully illustrated book, which also contains lots of other useful stuff for beginners and intermediate players - click here for more details from Amazon.com).


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