Chromatic Harmonica

Fred:

I see that Bushman is selling the JDR Trochilus in the U.S. as the "Game Changer." Same harp, different covers.

It's an interesting concept, setting up a Richter-tuned harp with a slide, in various keys. It could be fun to use with David's chromatic studies if you work on the Trochilus' possibilities, but you're going to get some really different sounds. E.g., one of the chromatic's characteristics in blues is the minor 6th chord you get for the root when you draw four holes anywhere on the harp. On the Trochilus you can get that same sound drawing holes 4-7, but anywhere else you'll get something different. Plus "fake octaves" are going to work completely differently. Compare the note layouts on a C chromatic and a C Trochilus and you'll see what I mean.

The standard chromatic's no. 1 distinction for blues is the way that the 4-hole octaves repeat themselves. One of the things that sets the Richter-tuned 10-hole harmonica apart is how the three octaves change direction (as well as how the third scale step is missing in the lower four holes).

And the standard chromatic is literally a completely different instrument from the standard 10-hole Richter-tuned harp.

You might ask David and Winslow Yerxa about their thoughts in their own "Ask ..." threads here. And if you've been playing both standard blues harp and standard chromatic for a while, and have a pretty good grounding in music theory, trying David's chromatic studies on the Trochilus might be a fun experiment. But if you're fairly new to chromatic, trying the studies on the Trochilus might confuse you.

Let us know how the studies work out for you!