Tip of the week: Holding the chromatic

The chromatic is too big to be enfolded in your hands like a diatonic. However, you still need to cup it and, depending on your style, you may need to use the slide button.

Rather than hold it by then ends, hold it more or less in the middle and let both the right and left ends stick out. This lets you form a tight cup around a microphone. It also distributes the weight of the harp to be less tiring to your hands.

You can also spread your cup over a wider segment of the harmonica without compromising your seal. This lets you cup more of the harp in your hands and also reach the button. Do this by seeing how far you can spread your hands without losing the seal - you're sort of elongating the contact between your hands. Think of the U-shaped line that runs from tip of little finger around to tip of thumb as a rim, and the surface of your right hand as a piece of cloth that can be draped on the rim and keep it covered.

The third, very important part, is to always hold the chromatic the same way. That way you can reliably bring the harp up to your face and know where the notes are without looking, because they're right where you left them the last time. This reliability factor i especially helpful on big 16-hole chromatics that offer such a wide tract of real estate to your mouth.