Fwd: [Harp-L] bending on chromatic (was Norton Buffalo Question)

["Winslow Yerxa" <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>]

--- In harp-l-archives@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "James" <wasabileo@...> wrote:

> On Mercury Blues (with Roy Rogers) there is some incredible 
> playing. He acknowledges everyone from Lee Oskar to Stevie 
> Wonder. It almost sounds like he switches from a diatonic to a 
> chromatic. Or he has the most incredible pair of lungs - as he is
> bending notes on its stiff reeds.
  
That last sentence appears to echo some persistent nonsenical ideas 
about the chromatic. Reeds on a chromatic are the same "stiffness" as 
diatonic reeds. They actually bend farther than diatonic reeds - due 
not to the reeds themselves but to the construction of the 
instrument. 

As to incredible lungs - it does not take force to bend notes, it 
takes focus and finesse. Toots Thielemans is a lifelong asthma 
sufferer, a very light breather when he plays, and can bend notes 
hellaciously on chromatic. As can or could Stevie Wonder, Little 
Walter, George Smith, Larry Adler, Robert Bonfiglio, Bill Barrett, 
Jerry Murad (check the four-semitone bend on "Cherry Pink and Apple 
Blossom White"), Michael Peloquin, and many others.

BTW, Norton does sometimes switch back and forth between diatonic and 
chromatic on records. But not for reasons of needing a diatonic when 
he wants to bend a note.

Winslow