Re: [Harp-L] Standing at the crossroads



I dislike your "crossroads" analogy. I suggest that you are trying to decide whether or not to add another tool to your kit and to develop the skill to use it well. Your question seems to me to boil down to how much future effort you wish to put into mastering overblows.

I decided long ago that, for me, bends and overblows were like pounding square pegs into round holes. It seems to me that you (not me) could play blues without overblows and play other genres requiring overblows on chromatic. It is like selecting a tool appropriate to the task.

However, your current ability to play the diatonic with bends will not instantly vanish when you pick up a chromatic. It could mean that your efforts will be addressed more to overall musicianship and less toward mastering overblows. It could mean that you will not be able to play chromatic notes on the diatonic. Unless you aspire to be another Howard Levy, you should be able to live with this.

Your phrase "learn to play chromatic" suggests that you think of it as a separate instrument. Most of your currend diatonic skills apply to the chromatic.

- Your ability to play single notes or pairs of "double stops"
- Your embouchure or "tone".
- Your ability to play by ear in the middle octave...because all octaves of the chromatic have that tuning.
- Your ability to read music and understand chords on guitar is easily extended to chromatic.


My point is that you are not entering completely strange territory. Nor are you losing your current ability on the diatonic.

What are the advantages:

- Any halftone in the chromatic scale is no more than a button push away. This can be mastered in 30 seconds as apposed to years of practice to master bends and overblows.
- Although there are exceptions both ways, a much higher % of chromatic players read music than do diatonic players. Reading brings sheet music of many new genres within your reach.


What are the disadvantages?

- Chromatic harmonicas are more expensive, finicky, and require more maintenance than diatonics.
- A C chromatic does not remember the key signature for you as do diatonics in different keys. It is possible to own chromatics in a variety of keys but it is expensive and the selections of chromatic types are limited.
However, it is no more challenging than playing in different keys on a guitar or other instrument.


And one more thing....under the heading of spam:

Because you already have chops on both instruments. I suggest you consider Hands-Free-Chromatic on a rack with your guitar. I find that practice playing both instruments yields more satisfaction than equivalent time and effort practicing bends and overblows. The sustained, reedy, overtone-rich sound of the monophonic harmonica playing melody combines perfectly with the decaying, rhythmic, mellow, sound of the polyphonic guitar in accompaniment. I love to play long passages of two-voice harmony. Such a passage would end after a few notes of double-stopping on harmonica at the need to play blow/draw or button in/out at the same time.

I must be careful not to rhapsodize. ;o)

Vern
Visit my harmonica website www.Hands-Free-Chromatic.7p.com






This archive was generated by a fusion of Pipermail 0.09 (Mailman edition) and MHonArc 2.6.8.