From: Dan <billybudd1313@xxxxxxxxx> To: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx Subject: [Harp-L] William Clarke/George Smith Chromatic Date: Tue, 14 Sep 2004 07:06:32 -0700 (PDT)
This is my first post in about 5 years. Since I left, I sort of re-developed out of a Popper worshiper, into a disciple of Rod Piazza. I always attack Rod with tons of questions, and one evening, we were talking about the chromatic. The posts, I've seen so far pretty much cover the original question about how to "do the West Coast Chromatic thing". ie. big octaves, 3rd pos. etc, but Rod's advice was a bit more philosophical.
First thing, was getting things down clean. Those big octaves sound great when you hit them right.Smooth fluid runs, and lots of tongue attack add tons too.
But, when you listen, for example, to a tune like "Honey Bee Buzz" on Harpburn, you'll notice that he inter-mixes clean licks with these awful (awfully cool to me) big, open, almost dissonant-sounding chords. He basically opens on 4 or 5 holes at at time (draw). I lack a lot of theory, so I'm not too concerned with these chords exactly . I'm sure someone more technical can describe the precise nature of the minor chords that can be created on 3rd pos. chromatic.
What I'm trying to convey, and he tried to convey to me on the chrom, was the combination of clean and really dirty sound for a greater overall effect. His direct quote was "you want it to sound like an old rusty tin can, but wrapped in a white velvet glove. Personally, I tend to think of chain saw sculptors. You have this viscious loud, violent thing, able to smoothly carve out a delicate, attractive piece of art.
Anyway, I suppose I'm back in Harp-l for a while.
Dan G.
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