Re: Positions, chromatics, jams and an unholy mess

[Winslow Yerxa <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>]

Mark Crowley writes:

>Been falling on my face at jams too much 
>lately - 3/4s of the music played isn't blues 
>- its all minor key "new rock" (not that I 
>mind the different music)

>Have been learning 3rd position and lately 4th 
>and 5th position..... to try and maintain a 
>semblance of playing in key

>This is still no remedy - its taking up to half 
>the song to figure out what I should be playing 
>- juggling up to 3 or 4 harps - or walking away 
>in disgust playing nothing at all.

>Does a single chromatic solve these problems?

No.

The problem is unfamiliar material. You're right that you need to find
a position that will work, but you face the exact same problem with a
chromatic - it's just concentrated all in one harp with a gazillion
possibilities.

At least a single chromatic can provide you with 
all the notes to learn lots and lots of scales in 
different modes and keys - doesn't it? (I realise 
we are talking about going back to square one and 
years and years of work here)

Yes, chromatic can play lots and lots of scales and modes in all keys.
But it's the learning of the scales and how they - and their chords -
work that will help you regardless of whether you play diatonic or
chromatic.

Here's a sort-of shortcut. Let's assume you play with the same bands
often enough that you're going to encounter the same tune at least
twice on different occasions. Ask the guitarist or keyboard player what
the chords are in the tune. A chord chart would be nice, but even just
a list of the chords will do.

Once you know what chords are in the tune, figure out what notes are in
the chords. Then take all the notes from all the chords and put them in
scale order, starting with the tonic or key note (A if it's in A minor,
for instance). 

Sometimes this will produce a scale with more than 7 notes. This could
be due to complexity, but it could also be that the tune changes at
some point - from minor to major, key change, that sort of thing. If
so, try to isolate the chords that belong to each section of the tune
that is in its own mode or key and concentrate on the individual parts
of the tune.

Now, once you have the notes of the scale, look at your harps and
figure out which key will give you the most notes in that scale before
even considering bends. Also look ot see what chords of the tune might
be available, even if fragmentary form. Especially look for the I, IV
and V chords.

This will help you figure out not only what harp to use, but will also
familiarize you with the chord structure of the tune. On any given
chord, the notes of the chords itself are the safest ones to play and
give a good home base and launching pad for more adventurous sorties.

Of course, while figuring out the content of the chords and the scales
they add up to, you're also teaching yourself music theory in a very
goal-oriented way.

You may decide that, on examination of the musical requirements of a
tune, that chromatic will work best. But there's a god chance that
diatonic will work for a very high proportion of the tunes.



>But don't chroms have different layouts too.. 
>in diff keys... so you are still going to 
>possibly require an armory of those? 

Chromatics come in 8 or 9 keys, with really only one standard tuning.
Most chromatic players stick with one key - usually C. Blues players
playing mostly third position will use chroamtics in various keys.


>whats the point of a valved diatonic 
>(suzuki promasters) versus a chromatic?

Different animal. A valved promaster allows you to bend the non-bending
notes. But valved bending is a technique all its own and has to be
learned. A chromatic has a reed for every note in the chromatic scale,
and bending is used only for expressive purposes (usually. Occasionally
players bend to get a specific note, but again this is a phrasing or
expressive choice, and not done to get an othersie non-existent note).

>should i be looking at determining the most 
>common keys these characters are playing in?

yes, along with the chord structure of the pieces.


>and fitting up with those minor key LO's instead?

Remember, there are three different classically defined minor scales,
and two additional minor modes derived from the major scale, so a Lee
Oskar minor harp might not fit as well as, say, a standard diatonic in
third position. At the same time, an alternate tuning may deliver the
same scales as a stnadard tuning, but do it in a differnt position that
offers sme advantages.

>or should i buy a chrom in C and start learning 
>my scales all over again? or do I buy 3 chroms in 
>different keys as well?

Scales yes. But you don't need to buy new harps to do that.

>I've been looking at key charts, scale charts, 
>harp charts until my pupils are spinning..

If you narrow it down to a focused quest - like taking a single tune,
figuring out the chords, the notes in the chords, the scales those
notes add up to, and which harp will deliver those notes, it won't seem
so overwhelming.

>Wile E Coyote - falling off that cliff into space every day - thats
me.

parachute, anyone?

Winslow

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