Chromatic, Melody Maker, Carlos

[Winslow Yerxa <76450.3230@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

TO: internet:harp-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

======So Peter Frederick McGuire finally had the pleasure of hearing
Carlos del Junco (one of the benefits of living in Toronto).
Carlos is going places definitely.

A couple of corrections about Carlos' harp choices. His main
instrument is the Hohner Golden Melody (not Melody Maker; that's
a special Lee Oskar tuning that doesn't overblow especially
well), and the metal-combed alternate is the Hohner
Meisterklasse.

======Ted Albritton asks about intermediate chromatic
instructional materials.

Most of what's out there is closer to beginner level. Jack Ely's
recommendation of Tommy Morgan's book is a good start. By the
way, the Alfred book *is a reprint of the original Warner Bros.
Book (I have it). Tommy Morgan has been the king of L.A. studio
and film harmonicicsts for many years, and presents his
information well. He also did a blues harp book about the same
time.

Alfred books are widely distributed, and your local music store
should be able to get it. Bigger stores may have it in stock.

Tommy Reilly, the classsical virtuoso, has a beginner's book out,
available from Hohner. Blackie Schackner's "Everything You always
wanted to know . . " is back in print, and has a lot of good
general information. Ask Richard Farrell if he carries it.

Having seen the first two issues of Richard Martin's "The
Harmonica Educator," I can say it shows promise as a source for
good information on the chromatic, although he's still largely in
the stage of attracting writers besides himself and covering
generalities about the chromatic. One good thing he's doing is
scanning the *general* literature on music education and finding
nuggets that can be applied to the harmonica.

Richard's personalized cassette lessons sound like a great
bargain at $10 a pop, especially when he volunteers to record
backgrounds for you to play along with, and half-speed renditions
on lead chromatic parts - this sounds like an awful lot of work.

I have a little book of scale exercises available for chromatic.
It's really just one exercise in all twelve major keys (I call it
Exercise No. 1), with tablature to indicate the best way to deal
with choice notes, and some general advice on practicing. I find
it's a great flexibility exercise. It comes unbound (i.e. loose
pages) so you can bind it according to your preference
(looseleaf, spread out, whatever) and so you can add other
exercises as they come out (this is the germ of what will be a
fairly extensive book when I get the time to flesh it out).

Anyway, Exercise No. 1 is available for $7.95 postpaid from
Harmonica Information Press, 203 14th Avenue, San Francisco CA
94118-1007.

======Yesterday I wrote:

>Here's the Natural minor in G
>
>      1      2      3	    4	   5	  6	 7	8      9     10
>   =======================================================================
>DR |	   |	  |	 |	|      |      |      |	    |	   |	  |
>   |  D   |  G   |  Bb  |  D	|  F   |  A   |  Bb  |	D   |  F   |  A   |
>   |------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------|
>   |	   |	  |	 |	|      |      |      |	    |	   |	  |
>BL |  C   |  Eb  |  G	 |  C	|  Eb  |  G   |  C   |	Eb  |  G   |  C   |
>   =======================================================================
>
>Note how it's labeled in the crossharp key. G natural minor is
>the same scale as Bb major, and if you treat Hole 2 on this harp
>as Hole 1, you have a Melody Maker in Bb.

I WAS WRONG about the Melody Maker part. It's more interesting than that (I
wrote it about 1 AM). If you take Bb as the keynote, you get the tonic
chord in the draw all the way up. And instead of getting the fifth degree
of the scale (F in this case) in Hole 2 (which would be Hole 1 on a Bb
Melody Maker), you get the sixth, which will bend down to the fifth (and
beyond). This is a very cool position to play, with its jazzy Major seventh
chord in the draw.