[Harp-L] Re: (Harp-L) Hello and introduction

["Steve Shaw" <moorcot@xxxxxxx>]

Vern wrote:
> It seems to me that at every step, the Chromatic is simpler and more 
> straightforward and doesn't >require any of the difficult oral acrobatics 
> required to bend or overblow.

I have to agree, going from my own experience.  My parents bought me a C 
chromatic when I was eight years old (I now know that it was a 270 or 
whatever they were called then!).  I was 40 years old before I even knew of 
the existence of 10-hole diatonics.  I played Clementine, Camptown Races, Oh 
Suzannah and all those - I just didn't use the button much, if at all, but 
all the notes in the diatonic scale were there in every octave and the 
layout was the same in each octave (I found those doubled-up Cs a bit of a 
pain!).  When I first grabbed a 10-hole decades later I was initially 
perplexed by the missing notes and the different patterns in the different 
octaves.  In fact I struggled to get much of a tune out of it to start with. 
 It took me a good while to adjust (and to find out about Paddy Richter) 
but making that adjustment was the road to nirvana for me.  I think that 
starting off on the chromatic, even without using the button, was a good 
launching-pad.

Steve


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