Blues Chromatic

So far I've:

-- showed you the two most important notes in the key of E (E in Blow 2, and B in Draw 4),
-- found some usable surrounding notes for each of them
-- then connected them into a five-note scale.

Now let's put the slide into play to add an important blue note -- the flat 5 -- and create a blues scale in the process.

NOTE: Shorthand for a slide-in note is <. For instance: 3D< Is hole 3, draw note played with the slide pressed in. continue reading...

In the first two installments, you found the tonic (home) note E and the dominant note B and played them over a 12-bar progression.

In Part 2 you found clusters of neighboring notes that were in adjacent holes and played in the same breath direction:

Tonic note: Blow 2 (E) and neighboring Blow 3 (G)

Dominant note: Draw 4 (B) and neighboring Draw 3 (A) and Draw 5 (D).

Now it's time to connect those two clusters of notes into a 5-note scale.

Try playing this sequence:

Blow 2 -> Blow 3 - > (play these notes on a single continuous blow breath) continue reading...

PART 2 – neighboring same-breath notes to the home note and the dominant note

In Part 1, you got familiar with playing and hearing the two most important notes in the scale - the tonic or home note (E in the key of E, in Blow 2, 6, and 10) and the dominant note (B in the key of E, Draw 4, 8, and 12.

The next things to explore are the notes in the neighboring holes.

- The blow note on the right side of E

- The draw notes to the right and left of B continue reading...

When you start learning a new key on chromatic, start by just playing the home note over several choruses of a 12-bar blues progression.

For the key of E, that means just playing the note E. This is the blow note in Holes 2, 6, and 10.

This may sound stupid, but it gets you comfortable with that note as a home base:

- Feeling its location as home base

- Feeling the action of playing it (blow or draw, slide in our out)

- Hearing it in the 12-bar progression

Try playing it first as long notes, then as a repeated note with rhythms that fit with the backing track. continue reading...

As blues harmonica players, we like to play in positions that give us nice, fat chords to exert all our tongue-blocking skills and give us a nice cushion - no bad discordant notes if we play the neighboring holes to the important blues notes.

This is probably why as players we favor second, third, and first positions on diatonic, in roughly that order – all three positions have full "home" chords (the I chord) that run through much of the harp. continue reading...

Ryan's Chro is sounding nice
The kid is taking full advantage of his opportunity with Dave
Good Job

what is the name of original song at
"Blues Chromatic Study 1 - Tongue slap review and other tongue block techniques used for blues chromatic" david played ?
please tell me,If anyone knows...I can't sleep..

I'm having a really hard time tongue blocking - so hard that I put the harmonica down for a week. I read some people block with the tip of the tongue. Others block with the side. Others with the top. Just trying to hit one clean note tires out my tongue. I don't seem to be able to hit a note without another bleeding in. When I do hit one, I definitely don't get the next one I go to. I need some advice.

What are some of your favorite chromatic tunes?

Here's one of mine, "Leaving Chicago" by George Smith
(George can bring down the house with just one or two notes)
http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=b_D-56WY57s

Do you know what kind of Chromatic GH Smith used?