[Harp-L] The Big Chord (was Some questions for chromatic players..(2)

["Dave Dix" <dixdr@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Just been checking out Winslow's excellent article on playing blues in D on the chrom which he mentioned in passing a few posts ago, which brings to mind the following:

A while back, after struggling with Paddy Richter tuning for irish tunes I decided to give Steve Shaw's variant a try - tune up the draw 2 a tone rather than the blow 3.  (On a C harp, tune the draw G up to A). 

Not only did i find
1. it's much more Irish-tune-friendly (especially fast tunes) than Paddy Richter, 
2. it's great too for jazz and melodic stuff in all sorts of positions (e.g. Autumn Leaves in 4th pos)

BUT ALSO...
3. you almost get that big-chord George Smith chrom sound in 3rd pos blues too.  The draw chord gives you the D, A and B. Just the F is missing. But the addition of the A seems to make an enormous difference. 

OK, you lose the draw G7 chord. Well you can't have everything canya? And if you're not playing in 2nd pos (which can get a little tiresome anyway) who needs it?

Re ongoing discussion piano/visualising: agreed, the piano keyboard is a roadmap of music. Clear as day.  But for those of us who aren't piano players, I find that to refer to it you have to stop and think, even get the old Casio out of the cupboard occasionally,  rather than having it available in the microchip in your head as a constant ready reference, which would be nice.. 


--- In harp-l-archives@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, Winslow Yerxa <winslowyerxa@...> wrote:

I have an ongoing series of articles at HarmonicaSessions.com on chromatic. The earlier articles, starting in the February, 2005 issue, address beginning chromatic for diatonic players. Later I get into some tongue-blocking stidues that work their way up to advanced tongue switching. Currently I'm addressing blues in different keys in chromatic.





      
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