Diatonic vs chromatic harmonica
The hohner super chromonica has the pattern
Do re mi fa sol la ti do
^ | ^ | ^ | | ^
| v | v | v v |
____ ____ ____ ___
1 2 3 4 <——Holes
5 6 7 8
9 10 11 12
The hohner marine band harmonica
has this pattern on holes 4,5,6,7 but due to less holes has different patterns
on holes 1,2,3,4 and on 7,8,9,10
In the lower range there is a duplicate
note on holes 3,4. (3 draw is sol.)
Why wasn’t it made fa?
(2)2 Comments
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The low 4 blow notes give you the I chord: 1, 3, 5, 1.
The low 4 draw notes give you the V chord: 5, 1, 3, 5.
Putting in the 4 would give you a rootless dominant 7.
At a guess, the prominence and importance of the 5th in pentatonic scales might have something to do with it; as I'm sure you're aware, diatonic harps are also called 'blues harps', and blues music generally focuses heavily on the dominant (and slightly less on the 4th). From Wikipedia:
Although there are three octaves between 1 and 10 "blow", there is
only one full major scale available on the harmonica, between holes 4
and 7. The lower holes are designed around the tonic (C major) and
dominant (G major) chords, allowing a player to play these chords
underneath a melody by blocking or unblocking the lower holes with the
tongue. The most important notes (the tonic triad C–E–G) are given the
blow, and the secondary notes (B–D–F–A), the draw.
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