Re: [Harp-L] Choose Your Weapon



Hello Phil,

I play jazz on a chromatic (half-valved if I can get chromatics that
are airtight enough).  I prefer it over playing jazz on diatonic.

I played or tried to play jazz for a number of years on diatonic /
blues harp, using overblows and overdraws.  I was pretty frustrated by
the problems of timbre and playing overblows in tune (not to mention
bends!) even after a not-inconsiderable amount of time practising.  I
came across the diminished tuning for chromatic, which lessens the
work in learning multiple scales, and I switched all my jazz stuff
onto chromatic.  I stopped playing diatonic for about 3 years while I
learned the chrom and only took up the diatonic again in the last year
- I can't do a lot of the OB things I used to, but now I'm happy
enough with the sound of my diatonic playing again.

Basically, the turning point for me came after a few years of OB
playing - when I was playing a ballad one day on diatonic that
required chromatic playing, and some notes were out of tune and others
were forced.  It just didn't sound good.  Perhaps the notes were in
exposed enough positions in the tune - the discussion comes up when
people talk about playing chromatically on the diatonic - playing in a
suitable position for the tune.  Anyway, I aked myself, when playing
the ballad, if I can barely make this tune sound ok at a crawling
pace, what chance do I have for uptempo numbers?

I switched to chromatic and I found that I spent a lot more time on
learning and playing music than on putting notes into tune.

I'm not against overblows per se as an ideological position - my
diatonic playing includes them.  But these day, I don't play tunes on
the diatonic that require full chromaticism - I leave that to the
chromatic harp.  I would like to try playing diatonic chromatically
again to see how far I get.  I'm just saying that I learned to play
jazz much more quickly when playing chromatic, so for me, it's more
suitable.  I'm not trying to convince anyone of the validity of either
approach.

Larry Marks writes about playing chromatically on a half-valved
diatonic....Very interesting Larry, I've never heard that approach
taken to full chromaticism.  I would sometimes valve the 2 blow on a
diatonic instead of playing a 1 hole overblow.  Would you be on for
providing a sample (offlist if you like) of something showing the
valved bends, maybe a chromatic scale or something like that, to hear
what the approach is like?  I'd appreciate it.  If not, that's ok - I
realise it's a bit forward of me to ask.

All the best,
Eugene




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