Seydel Nonslider Chromatic?
Winslow:
Have you had any experience with slide-less chromatics? I'm curious about the Seydel Nonslider, and imagine that one would have to get used to tilting the mouthpiece instead of pushing the button.
I know that Tombo has made various models, that appear to have relatively flat mouthpieces, which to my mind would appear to be harder to play than the distinctive mouthpiece on the Seydel. And Suzuki has made models that appear to be blow only, with holes arranged on two tiers like the white and black keys on a piano keyboard, which would seem to be a completely different animal.
Add to that: The types of effects one can get using the button would not appear to work on the slideless. E.g., a button jab.
It's had to picture someone like George Harmonica Smith or Rod Piazza playing a slideless. But I assume there must be some things they do better than slide chromatics.
Thoughts?
By the way, your article about the Hohner PentaHarp in the latest SPAH "Harmonica Happanings" magazine is really interesting.
Winslow: As always, a concise yet still comprehensive explanation. I'll look forward to more in an upcoming Harmonica Happenings. And I will be interested in users' approaches to octaves, fake octives, etc., as well as compensating for there being no "button-jab" option on the nonslider. Now as for the idea of double-stops with one upper (C scale) hole, and one lower (C# scale), if the photos can get past the editors at Harmonica Happenings, I imagine it'll take puckering to a whole new dimension!
Winslow: Just got my latest issue of SPAH's Harmonica Happenings, and enjoyed your product review of the Seydel Nonslider. Really appreciated the detail you went into, and your honest assessment of the pros and cons. Probably won't be buying one in the near future, but good to have the info. Hope all's well with you these days.
I've been playing one for a review coming out in SPAH's Harmonica Happenings magazine in a few months.
The Seydel Mouthpiece is a definite improvement, as the exposed reedplates on the Suzuki and Tombo models tend to disrupt the embouchure when you tilt the harp up and down.
One thing that's different: the Asian models all put the sharps *above* the naturals, which makes musical sense. Seydel just went with the way straight-tuned chromatic reedplates have always been: the sharps are on the bottom reedplate, so you have to go lower to go higher, so to speaks. That takes some getting used to if you've played the Asian models.
Without valves, the tone is brighter than on a valved chromatic. Depending on your desired sound, that could be a plus or a minus. The NonSlider is *very* airtight and can play overblows, which is kind of cool. The tilting up and down thing is something I've done on other harps, including my own 1990s Discrete Comb diatonics, but applied to a chromatic harmonica it takes some getting used to.
Some folks think it would be impossible to play tongue-blocked effects like the ones that are common in third position blues chromatic. I find that it's posslbe, but has its own learning curve. One thing I'm curious to play around with is cross-row double stops. For instance, on a slide chromatic it's not possible to play C (blow, slide out) and F (either draw, slide out, or blow, slide in) at the same time. But you might be able to play C on the top row and Blow F on the bottom row at the same time. Hmm...