@Jay1 I mean there is a big wall between the chromatic and the diatonic harmonicas in your average player’s mind, I think.
Sure there are quite a few diatonic players who play some chromatic as well. I’m honestly not sure how many chromatic players there are who play diatonic as well. I supposed there are examples of Stevie & Toots both playing diatonic so that’s something.
Anyways I know, until recently, the chromatic had always been intimidating to me and felt like a “different” instrument. Something like going from electric bass to upright bass.
But I think it serves us all well to open up our minds to exploring “the other” a bit. There are surely treasures to be gained from such exploration.
@Luke Luke I’m pretty sure you hit the nail on the head with ’ in your average player’s mind,’ re any ‘wall’ between diatonic and chromatic. From what I’ve seen on this forum @Andy2 is one example and probably there are others of competent diatonic players who have taken to trying chromatic and appear to have found it both interesting and not such an intimidating instrument. On the reverse there are many chromatic players who also play diatonic, even I do occasionally although most of my playing is on demand studio work and that’s almost exclusively chromatic melody lines.
On another subject, has anyone done a comparison between the EastTop 10/40 NV and the Bushman NV chromatic (think it’s the yellow version)? I’ve not looked at a Bushman yet, Jay1
I think of chromatic as a fundamentally easier instrument to understand. On the diatonic, I have different note layouts in each octave, extreme intonation challenges n the bottom octave, and overblows required for many situations.
It’s actually part of what kept it interesting to me, music basics are just so much more challenging on the diatonic.
Chromatic, same note layout in each octave. Some challenges around “which C do I play” but that’s not required for casual playing.
There should be more subcategories on here in the various boards here yes. We should have a Diatonic, Chromatic, and also Tremolo sub category in the Harmonica. I was hoping there would be one when I came here so I could read and share with other tremolo lovers among other categories. Still glad there’s an actual forum and community being fostered here. The only other forum is ProBoards, not a real website or facebook which isn’t a forum but keeps getting recommended by boomers.
although most of my playing is on demand studio work and that’s almost exclusively chromatic melody lines.