[Harp-L] Re: Harp-L Digest, Vol 134, Issue 28

[JON KIP <jon@xxxxxxxxxx>]

one  point, me being a sax player turned amateur jazz chromatic harmonica owner, writer of no books....when diatonic folk bend or over blow or whatever, in order  play a note chromatically they can hold it at that pitch, OR they can use that as a way to get to the next note... a bend into the next note.

Sax players use bends to bend, and would never use a bent note as a destination....it would sound out of tune if held, and Adolph Sax gave the fortunate players of his instruments actual notes for every chromatic note in the range. 

He also unintentionally gave people a handy base for an electrical  lamp when he made the C Melody Saxophone and a way to falsely  raise your hopes of getting Girls at The GIg (if You're Not Kenny G.) when he made the soprano sax. (the prevailing theory being that John Coltrane didn't play soprano sax for the pheromone phactor....factor)

Playing diatonic chromatically does have its power players, but, If I, as a clarinet player, had to play a non-funeral tempo line in unison with a harmonica player, I'd hope he played chromatic harmonica.


On Oct 31, 2014, at 1:50 PM, harp-l-request@xxxxxxxxxx wrote:

> This is absolutely, positively  untrue.  An overblow is no more "unstable"
> than a regular "blues" bend  or countless types of notes played on a
> saxophone, trumpet etc.  An  overblow can be sustained, bent etc.  Here is
> an example from my own  playing:

jk

The philosopher Socrates, discovered to his dismay that he was the smartest person in Athens merely because he, and he alone, recognized how ignorant he was.
http://jonkip.com