[Harp-L] 1st Chromatic ?

["John F. Potts" <hvyj@xxxxxxx>]

I'm new to chrom, but I really like my Suzuki SCX-48 and SCX-56, both  
in C.  Very airtight, nice consistent response, and not at all leaky,  
sticky or temperamental.  I am able to focus on PLAYING instead of  
working at getting the instrument to respond properly.  First chroms  
I've ever tried that I actually enjoy playing.

The 14 hole SCX-56 is useful, since it dips down to G below middle C,  
but the 12 hole SCX-48 seems just fine for a lot of material. I'm  
sticking to chroms in C for the time being because I like having an  
instrument where all the notes are always in the same location  
instead of having to transpose and change instruments to change keys,  
but YMMV. Now all I need to do is learn to play them.

Btw, bending more than a quartertone on a chrom seems to be  
problematic for me.  But i found that I was able to get pretty  
comfortable working the slide by first learning to play the major (do- 
re-mi) scale in different keys and then immediately  learning to play  
the blues scale in those same keys.   The biggest adjustment for me  
was having to think  in terms of SHARPS all the time since pushing in  
the slide takes you UP a half step.  So, for example, to play the  
"blue notes" 3b, 5b, 7b you have to think/play 2#, 4#, 6#. But you  
get used to it. Chrom is truly a different instrument than the diatonic.

FWIW.

JP