Chromatic Practice
Sat, 08/23/2014 - 07:48
Obtaining a chromatic is now on my radar as LOA 5 is coming up and you recommend studying No Sweat. Looking through the other LOA's I'm not sure I saw much chromatic work in them. So my question is do you routinely get your students who show some interest in chromatic to include it as part of their daily practice routine? Also, do you believe that chromatic practice can be considered to be highly beneficial to diatonic proficiency or is is it actually more like studying a different instrument? Thanks!
Play the chromatic only if it interests you. Some students love the sound and some don't care for it. If you hear it and it jumps out to you as being very cool, then go for it!
Chromatic is not included in the LOA program, so you're not responsible for learning it. You're now at a point in your technique where you can approach it, and do well with it, this is why I bring it up now.
The chromatic, though using a different note layout, is approached the same as the diatonic... you still tongue block, use tons of slaps, pulls, octaves, etc., just not much bending (dips mostly). The note layout comes from the tuning of your diatonic from 4+ to 7+ (C Major Scale), in three octaves (more on this in the chromatic lesson). The chromatic harmonica is played in 3rd Position most commonly for blues, and the work you do on the diatonic harmonica from hole 4 and above is very similar (since they share that range of the harmonica's tuning), and is nice to swap licks back and forth.
So, in the end, yes, there are some similarities and is very approachable... it just gets down to time... you'll need more of it to dig into the chromatic, or sacrifice some time from your diatonic studies.