Stumpy's harmonica

Howard Hawks had a couple of discrepancies in relation to musical instruments played by Walter Brennan and Arthur Hunnicutt in Rio Bravo and El Dorado.

In Rio Bravo, Stumpy starts playing along on his harmonica with the Deguello song. It sounded great, but the problem is that the song is in a minor key, and Stumpy's harmonica is not (he plays it in a major key). You can play along in minor keys on a standard harmonica, but not like Stumpy did in the film. He was playing minor chords, then shifting to major chords and back to minor again...and these were full chords. Plus he did some chromatic moves, and the chromatic harmonica didn't appear until the mid 1920s. Good for the scene, but inaccurate in reality.

In El Dorado, Bull rides in while playing "The Girl I Left Behind Me" on his bugle....a bugle with no valves. Unfortunately it can't be done like he does in the film, a bugle only plays arpeggios...although you can "lip it up" (bend a note). But The Girl I Left Behind Me is a song that would be darned near impossible to play on a bugle. Plus, he was playing the song while riding.

Interesting that both films had musical goofs in relation to the same character.