Fwd: [Harp-L] 10 hole German major valved chromatic





On Aug 27, 2007, at 2:09 PM, Mark Russillo wrote:

> Smokey -
>
> You and I started at different ends of the spectrum, so I disagree
> but I'll meet you somewhere, someday in the middle.

Ok Mark, here's why I feel the way I feel. And remember, it's only my (personal) opinion. As a small boy, and living in a mill town on the edge Of Pgh Pa., we lived about 60 ft. from the railroad tracks. Ever night the coke trains (no not THAT kind of coke) would come down the river from the ovens upriver on their way to our steel mills. Lying in my bed the sound of the whistles bouncing off the walls of the Allegheny Valley captivated me as some of the most mournful sad sounds I would ever hear.


I bought a diatonic and tried to emulate these sounds. Then my father was posted to Italy. There were three types of music that you could listen to on the radio. 1.. local I-tralian music....nice, but too many mandolins. 2.. Armed Forces radio out of Heidelberg Ger.... all big band and geared to the senior Army occupation personnel. 3.. The music of Wien, Buda-Pesht, Praha. I LOVED that Gypsy stuff but NO way could you do it on a diat. So I bought a chromo. Case closed...mystery solved.

Within a matter of DAYS, I was able to manage a sloppy, messy, shot in the face with 3 rounds of 12 guage version of Trisch Trasch Polka (Strauss gallop polka). Within weeks, a sick demented version of Czardas. BUT I was on my way. These were tunes that you couldn't do in a lifetime of practice with a diatonic. (at least not me).

Now for the point: Over the years I have met many diatonic players that (God bless them) for some strange reason, tend to think that chromo is more difficult and it scares them or at the very least intimidates them. Then, to make things really strange, many chromo players seem to think that CHROMO is more difficult.

Do you see the undercurrent here. BOTH the diat. AND chromo players feel the chromo is more difficult. How silly, nothing could be farther from the truth. Here we have the wonderful attitude of the diatonic players giving all this credit to chromo players by saying that their chromo is the more difficult, while the chromo players feel their OWN instrument is the more difficult. I may have a version of 'After the Lovin' up on you-tube soon. It has a couple hundred thousand notes. Decide for yourself.

Btw, fellas, please don't attack me for this as I play both but am mostly (2/3 x 1/3) a chromo player, and it's one of those 'If the shoe fits' deals. If you're not one of these people, disregard. Why do I play chromo more than diatonic? Because I am Laaaaazy. When you consider the advancements that have been accomplished in diat. and the 'Super' players we now have, you have to give them credit for the amount of dues they have paid. Especially in the arena of breath switching at machine-gun speeds, impossible combinations, avoidance of having a heart attack.

With a chromo, it's a matter of learning the legato possibilities of the E# & B# options and how to turn the chords. With diat. many of your notes, effects, sounds, tones, runs, have to be planned in advance and MANUFACTURED from scratch. THAT takes talent. Also I have dropped telling people that they have 'the gift'. I now realize that this demeans all the hard work they have done and infers that God/Krishna/Mohammad simply THREW talent at them.

Smokey-Joe


>
> Mark Russillo
> a.k.a. The Rhode Island Kid
>
> Joe and Cass Leone wrote:
> I'm having a good time with THIS one.
>
> 1.. Point A. Diatonics are MUCH harder to play than chromos
> 2.. Point B. See point A.
>
> smo-joe







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