Richter-tuned harmonica

The standard diatonic harmonica is designed to allow a player to play chords and melody in a single key.

As well, it has a smaller size and is much more suitable to use with microphone, and it is still cheaper than chromatic, even for a premade one like Hohner's Auto Valve or Suzuki's Promaster MR-350v.

Half-Valved diatonics are made by fitting windsavers on half the lower reed in each opening: draw holes 1–6 and blow holes 7–10; this way, all these reeds can be bent down a semitone at least, although most players can easily bend down a whole tone.

One way to address the latter is by having an additional reed that activates when one bends a note; this is the philosophy of Hohner's XB-40 and Suzuki's SUB30 Ultrabend.

This is much less intuitive as it requires the ability to bend notes completely accurately, and there are fewer useful chords available than in first or second-position playing.

The bends available at the lower end of the instrument also make playing melodies in a D major scale relatively easy for those who have any semblance of proficiency at the bending technique, though most of the notes (all but the second and fourth, E and G) in the scale are on the draw, requiring great skill and strategy in exhaling, even more so than in crossharp.

Note the extra holes 11–14 which in theory extend the bending capabilities a lot (from A down to E in hole-14, for example), although in practice these are quite limited.

Below, the layout of the Steve Baker Special in the key of C: They come in five keys: This harmonica offers many interesting possibilities, especially for blues harmonica, like extended tongue-block octave playing, the possibility to play exactly the same second-position riffs in two octaves, etc.

The Hohner XB-40, invented by Rick Epping, features an entirely new body design, though in practice, it is still a Richter-tuned (diatonic) harmonica.

However, it is placed on the opposite side of the reed-plate from the speaking reed and tuned so that it responds when the player “bends” the note downwards in pitch.

Sonny Boy Williamson I created basics of blues harp play style.

After that Rice Miller, better known as Sonny Boy Williamson II, is one of the most important harmonicists of this era.

[2] Using a full blues band, he became one of the most popular acts in the South due to his daily broadcasts on the 'King Biscuit Hour', originating live from Helena, Arkansas.

He also helped make popular the cross-harp technique, opening the possibilities of harp playing to new heights.

Sonny Boy Williamson II used hand effects to give a very talkative feel to his harp playing.