Re: [Harp-L] Standing at the crossroads

["Vern Smith" <jevern@xxxxxxx>]

I dislike your "crossroads" analogy.  I suggest that you are trying to 
decide whether or not to add another tool to your kit and to develop the 
skill to use it well.  Your question seems to me to boil down to how much 
future effort you wish to put into mastering overblows.

I decided long ago that, for me, bends and overblows were like pounding 
square pegs into round holes.  It seems to me that you (not me) could play 
blues without overblows and play other genres requiring overblows on 
chromatic.  It is like selecting a tool appropriate to the task.

However, your current ability to play the diatonic with bends will not 
instantly vanish when you pick up a chromatic. It could mean that your 
efforts will be addressed more to overall musicianship and less toward 
mastering overblows. It could mean that you will not be able to play 
chromatic notes on the diatonic.  Unless you aspire to be another Howard 
Levy, you should be able to live with this.

Your phrase "learn to play chromatic"  suggests that you think of it as a 
separate instrument.  Most of your currend diatonic skills apply to the 
chromatic.

- Your ability to play single notes or pairs of "double stops"
- Your embouchure or "tone".
- Your ability to play by ear in the middle octave...because all octaves of 
the chromatic have that tuning.
- Your ability to read music and understand chords on guitar is easily 
extended to chromatic.

My point is that you are not entering completely strange territory.  Nor are 
you losing your current ability on the diatonic.

What are the advantages:

- Any halftone in the chromatic scale is no more than a button push away. 
This can be mastered in 30 seconds as apposed to years of practice to master 
bends and overblows.
- Although there are exceptions both ways, a much higher % of chromatic 
players read music than do diatonic players. Reading brings sheet music of 
many new genres within your reach.

What are the disadvantages?

- Chromatic harmonicas are more expensive, finicky, and require more 
maintenance than diatonics.
- A C chromatic does not remember the key signature for you as do diatonics 
in different keys.  It is possible to own chromatics in a variety of keys 
but it is expensive and the selections of chromatic types are limited.
However, it is no more challenging than playing in different keys on a 
guitar or other instrument.

And one more thing....under the heading of spam:

Because you already have chops on both instruments. I suggest you consider 
Hands-Free-Chromatic on a rack with your guitar.  I find that practice 
playing both instruments yields more satisfaction than equivalent time and 
effort practicing bends and overblows. The sustained, reedy, overtone-rich 
sound of the monophonic harmonica playing melody combines perfectly with the 
decaying, rhythmic, mellow, sound of the polyphonic guitar in accompaniment. 
I love to play long passages of two-voice harmony.  Such a passage would end 
after a few notes of double-stopping on harmonica at the need to play 
blow/draw or button in/out at the same time.

I must be careful not to rhapsodize.    ;o)

Vern
Visit my harmonica website www.Hands-Free-Chromatic.7p.com