Chromos are at a disadvantage when compared to other instruments.
Now lets say a guitar has 5 fingers, 6 strings and 20 frets. That's
600 combinations. A piano has 8 fingers, 2 thumbs, and 88 keys.
Thats 880 combinations (Not including smears..i.e. more than 2 keys
hit by one finger). A trumpet has 4 fingers (remember the tuning
slide), and 4 (practical) embochures. That's only 36 combinations. A
chromo has ONE mouth, 12 holes, 1 slide, BUT the breath must be
switched, so what 'Looks' like 144 combinations, is only 72. But
WAIT, there's something dreadfully wrong here.
Now when you consider that many of these combinations CANNOT be
acheived (i.e. hitting the 12th and 1st hole simultaneously, OR the
11th and 2nd , OR the 10th and 3rd, or any combination of those, AND
the improbability of hitting a blow note and draw note at the same
time, you see the problem? Then, to top it all off, there's the
slide. How does one hit one note slide in and another slide OUT?
Discounting double stop, chords, triads, and splits, the
combinations drop off to a precious few..September..November, and
these few precious few...oops, I think I lost it there for a second.
Therefore, I think it is in the best interest of the chromo player
to use ANY and ALL forms of guile, artifice, and shicanery to
achieve what ever the aforementioned chromaticist can, to arrive at
the result that comes closest to what they desire. MY particular
form of artifice is to use chromos keyed in various keys to play in
VARIOUS keys (not necessarily the one the chromo is home keyed IN)
to arrive at a completely different THIRD key.
Examples: I was just playing around with a backup track. It had
tunes of varying keys. I was using a G chromo. Here's what I had to
do:
song was in C. I had to play the G chromo in F to 'meet' the tune's
key
song was in Eb. I had to play in Ab
song was in F. I had to play in Bb
song was in D. I had to play in G
song was in G. Naturally, I played it in C.
song was in Dm. I had to play in Cminor
THEN, I switched to an F chromo
song was in C. I had to play in G
song was in Eb. I had to play in Bb
song was in F. Naturally, I played it in C.
song was in D. I had to play in A (tough...for me)
song was in G. I had to play in D
song was in Dm. I had to play in Bbminor
The whole exercise was to find out WHAT key was easiest, BECAUSE:
just because you have a chromo in the same key a song is IN, doesn't
mean that that is the easiest 'Position' to play it in. Considering
all the fills, frills, nuances, available improv., sometimes a song
can be played in a different key easier and even better. Sw Ga Brown
lays out in D on a C chromo BETTER than C.
Case in point: A particular Latin tune is very fast. It is what is
called a Chorinho. It lays out do-able in the F 'fingering' pattern.
BUT it is written in G. It is nigh impossible to do it in G. The
speed is too much for breath switching. (Keeping in mind that it is
written for guitar). Sooo? what to do? Am I supposed to devote half
my life like that guy from Argentina (Edu du Gaita) and concentrate
on 'Perpetuoso' till my face falls off? No thank you.
I WILL take a Bb chromo and DO it in MY better key of F, while the
band plays it in G like THEY would prefer. We BOTH wind up with the
terminal sound coming out of all our instruments AS (guess what?).
That's right...we're ALL in G. Case closed.
Otherwise, I (basically) agree that playing everything on a C has
merits of it's own that are so obvious as to negate any further
dessertation(s) along THOSE lines.
smokey-joe
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