[Harp-L] Some questions for chromatic players..

["sam blancato" <samblancato@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Note: I also submitted this post Slidemister but I'm new to that site; I
thought I might get some pretty good responses on this list.  

Hi People, 

I've been taking another stab at developing my chromatic skills these days.
I have a hell of a time TB-ing a chromatic to get nice, clean octave splits,
very frustrating for a guy is really comfortable TB-ing every which way on a
short harp.  But I can do a TB embouchure on single notes just fine so I'm
setting aside the octave splits goal for now and working on the ultimately
more important stuff like learning to play from written music.  My goal is
to play jazz standards and other swinging styles where I can play melodic
stuff.  "How deep is the Ocean?", "Lover Man", "Tenderly", "Round Midnight";
that kind of stuff.

Some questions are coming up for me about chromatics and I know there're
folks on this list that have answers so here goes.

What is "Bop Tuning"?  I know nothing about this at all.  Wishful thinking
has me hoping that it's a tuning configuration that eliminates the doubling
of 'C' every 5th hole so that you have two Cs in a row - this annoys me a
lot.  Then I wonder if that's such a desirable thing.  Does it make playing
written music harder or easier? 

I have a Suzuki Chormatix 16 harp (C).  It plays okay but it's not very loud
and I have a tough time hitting the notes hard so I can get clean, staccato
notes. Is this me or does the harp need work?  

I also have two Hohner 270 Super Chromonicas, one in C and one in G.  The G
has a cracked comb and is kind of airy around the crack.  Does anybody sell
a plastic or other material comb that I can buy as a replacement?  

The Hohners actually play louder and cleaner.  The slides on these harps
seem to work better too although they are tighter and take more push to
operate.  

The C Hohner is a standard C and I want to get a Tenor C.  Since I seem to
like the 270s and they aren't giving me any trouble (except the cracked comb
on the G) and play louder and brighter than the big Suzuki should I just go
and order another 270 in Tenor and have done with or is there another harp
near in price to the Hohner ($136.00) that one of you players out there has
found to be just so much better? 

Is there a good Chromatic harmonica method book out there that any of you
have found especially helpful?  I have Richard Martin's book and I plan to
make use of it and, if fact already have.  And it seems okay except that the
book is actually a collection of reprinted articles from some magazine so
the instruction is a little disjointed.  Any suggestions would be really
helpful.  

I also have some comments about playing chromatic that I wanted to share.  

Since I started really working out with the chro, certain facts stand out
that I really haven't read much discussion on here or on other lists.  To
practice articulation and to get used to the utterly arbitrary (seems that
way) breathing patterns, I'm learning Paul Delay's "Why Can't You Love Me?" 
Playing the chromatic is really DIFFERENT.  I mean, yeah, it's similar in so
many ways to the short harp too.  But, setting aside the musical aspects for
a minute, the physical stuff has some really big differences.  My TB
embouchure has to be a lot tighter on the chro than with a short harp to get
good articulation and it seems like I have to keep my diaphragm much tighter
too.  Since bending only gives you a very slight dip in pitch, throat
vibrato is very different too.

Musically, I can really see how some kinds of jazz and swing would really
sound great on a chromatic but I can also see how some other stuff wouldn't
sound right.  There are some beautiful ballads that would sound great on
chromatic; I have some of Charlie Parkers stuff from the Dial vault that
would sound perfect on a chromatic but his faster stuff (the Verve stuff and
Savoy stuff) would not sound good at all.  The point is I don't think
everything works.  I've heard some really fast stuff played on the chro,
some of the Delay and Toots stuff and even done by buy these great musicians
it leaves something to be desired.  Toot's work on the Bill Evans record
seems to work really well though. Okay, 'nuff said for now I guess.

Sam Blancato, Pittsburgh