[Harp-L] Stevie Wonder

[Winslow Yerxa]

Stevie Wonder owns 16-hole chromatics in Bb, B, C, and Db (this from his current harmonica tech who prefers to remain anonymous). Frank Huang built these keys for Stevie back when Frank worked for Hohner. More recently, Suzuki has built those keys for him.

I always start from the working assumption that Stevie is playing a C chromatic, then modify that if necessary if internal evidence indicates otherwise.

Some of his recordings show that either the pitch was shifted down for his solo (F# to F for Chaka Khan’s “I Feel For You” and from B to Bb for his own “Do I Do”) or that he used a Db chromatic.

However, in a live playing situation, pitch shifting isn’t practical - as a player you'd be hearing one pitch acoustically and another coming out of the monitor. When he has guested with Sting in live performance on “Brand New Day,” which is in B minor, Stevie has used a B chromatic to play in first position, using a blues-scale-based approach similar to the one he used for his early live recording of “Fingertips” (in C on a C chromatic).

That said, Stevie can play in any key. For instance used a C chromatic to play in E major on “ISn’t She Lovely” and to play in F# major on “For Once in My Life.” These are keys that many chromatic players flee from in terror and dread. So evidently his choices are driven more by the possibilities of a particular key position than by his fluency in one key over another.
 
Winslow Yerxa
Producer, the Harmonica Collective
Author, Harmonica For Dummies, Second Edition: ISBN 978-1-118-88076-0
            Harmonica Basics For Dummies, ASIN B005KIYPFS
            Blues Harmonica For Dummies, ISBN 978-1-1182-5269-7
Resident Expert, bluesharmonica.com
Instructor, Jazzschool Community Music School
President emeritus, SPAH, the Society for the Preservation and Advancement of the Harmonica



________________________________
From: Slim Heilpern <slim at xxxxx>
To: Robert Hale <robert at xxxxx>; harp-l harp-l <harp-l at xxxxx> 
Sent: Friday, August 25, 2017 6:33 AM
Subject: Re: [Harp-L] Stevie Wonder



Hi Robert -

He rarely uses anything other than a C chromatic, regardless of the key of the song. IOW, he plays in _all_ positions (since he plays in all keys).

In my experience, most people playing jazz, r & b, or pop music on chromatic don't generally think in terms of ‘positions' any more than a piano player does — that term (at least to me) is only helpful if you’re regularly switching among different key’d instruments.

- Slim.

www.SlimAndPenny.com



> On Aug 24, 2017, at 6:58 PM, Robert Hale <robert at xxxxx> wrote:
> 
> Does Stevie play in 5th position chromatic for Minor blues phrases?
> (C harp, E minor)
> Slide-up sounds cool in a couple of places.
> 
> Anyone link me to other SW resources?
> 
> Thanks all.
> 
> Robert Hale
> Serious Honkage in Arizona
> youtube.com/DUKEofWAIL
> DUKEofWAIL.com