Re: [Harp-L] chromatic - playing in all keys

[Winslow Yerxa <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>]

Absolutely! Every key has something special to offer - different chordal combinations, different scale fragments and quasi-arpeggios that lie easily, different effects to be gained from using the slide for ornaments and for "skimming" the blow or draw plane, working the slide in and out as you move across the plane.

Still, the temptations is to treat the chromatic as a single-note instrument once you get away from the big, obvious chords. One of the things I tried to do in Blue Chrome (the aforementioned harmonicasessions.com piece) was to find chordal combinations that worked in the key of B. With a native scale where everything is flatted except the tonic and the 4th, even with this out-there scale, once you start using split intervals and working the slide, you can find all sorts of things. (Of course it helped that I tailored the chordal background to use the strengths of the key.)

Another thing you can do is try to come up with sheets of sound. Instead of the linear blow-draw, change hole approach to scales, going up and down through the ladder of notes, you can take all the notes in the scale and treat them as one bog "Field" of sound that can be looked at as a sort of chord, or as a scale whose notes can be played in any order. Aplly that to the notes that lie conveniently together on the harmonica, and you can come up with some cool things.

Winslow

"G. E. Popenoe" <gpopenoe@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:I've noticed that when I play in all keys on a C chromatc, every scale  
lays differently. This causes a change in technique and phrasing when  
improvising resulting in greater variety of ideas.


       
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