Re: [Harp-L] William Clarke/George Smith Chromatic

["Bob Maglinte" <bbqbob917@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Emile Mercier" <emercier@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "Harp-L" <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, September 13, 2004 9:46 AM
Subject: [Harp-L] William Clarke/George Smith Chromatic


> Hello. I just joined Harp-L and have a question for any of those here that
> are proficient at the "west coast swing" chromatic harmonica. I have been
> playing diatonic for over 20 years and have made myself a nice nitch 
> locally
> as a blues harmonica/Celtic harmonica player. I play mainly through a
> Victoria 518 and a brown biscuit astatic ( when the venue allows for the
> volume). Anyways, I recently bought several chromatic harmonicas and have
> found that my normally excellent ear for practice has been challenged 
> quite
> a bit by this new instrument. I am really good at diatonic and have quite 
> a
> good ear. But, chromatic is quite hard to nail down, especially all those
> neat sounding ornamental sounds William Clarke blows out. I am dying to 
> nail
> down this sound. Does anyone here have any advice for me, in terms of
> tricks, tabs, or anything that will help me get on my way to mastering 
> this
> awesome (new for me) sound? Thank you for any response. -Emile

Hi Emile,
One of the things you'll need to learn is that with the George Smith school 
of blues chromatic, you'll be using the button for some of the stuff, wheras 
the Little Walter school doesn't use the button at all and a classic pupil 
of the LW school is Carey Bell. To play the octaves in the GS school, an 
essential ingredient,  wheras on the diatonic, you'd open up to 4 holes, and 
tongue block 2 in the middle (and on a chromatic, this would be playing in 
6ths, the LW school), on a chromatic, you open up to 5 holes and tongue 
block out the 3 in the middle. Most blues chromatic players usually play 3rd 
position, but George Smith also used 1st position, and here's where the 
button comes much more into play than with 3rd. The GS school not only uses 
the 64 type of chormatics (which only comes in C), but also 270's in Bb, F, 
G, and sometimes A.

Sincerely,
Barbeque Bob Maglinte
Boston, MA
http://www.barbequebob.com
MP3's: http://music.mp3lizard.com/barbequebob/