@Luke Noticed your comment Thrilled that more and more chromatic players are joining the forum here! to @Chasinmendo’s introduction. I’d be interested to know why? Is it just coincidence? Is it because more usable chromatic are coming to market at reasonable prices? Is it because some diatonic players want to experiment with chromatic? Or could it be that the forum’s chromatic players are encouraging others to try them? Really be interested in opinions. Jay1
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I started playing Chromatic mainly out of curiosity and for variety and I also added Octave and Tremolo harmonicas. As with diatonic I play mainly for fun and stick to simple tunes. I really like the sound of the Tremolo and Octave. A simple post and opinion but there it is!
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Well I’m a Little Walter, George Harmonica Smith, William Clarke, Rod Piazza, Paul Delay Fan, I’ve always been a fan of it but hadn’t the first clue. Now I’m making up riffs and Being my own horn section can’t wait to try it out live with a band but I’ve got a hell of a way to go first.
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There was a great chromatic forum, Slidemiester. It was quirky because it was run by a fellow named AJ who was also a bit restritive. But he’s essentially shut it down and only people who have been members for years are allowed to post there now. So there are people who like the forum format, but are looking for a home.
Also, there are more people now who very seriously pursue both instruments. There’s a number of pros that are doing this now, whereas previously they were considered two different worlds. At SPAH, you can see they are trying to break down this barrier by featuring acts that have both diatonic and chromatic players together. There’s still some cultural baggage about it, but it is lessening over time.
Personally I learned chromatic harmonica to improve my diatonic playing. It does so very well. But it has captured my interest now, and I’m learning chromatic more seriously and taking lessons in classical harmonica technique.
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I was also curious and enjoy playing Christmas songs and some hymns. David Barrett also has a chromatic course on blues that is very challenging.
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Hi @Hogie.Harmonica, I would like to hear your take on how chromatic makes you a better diatonic player. I too have noticed a bit of difference since I started playing Chrominica. My tongue blocking for example has come on in leaps
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@jeffw @Andy2 @Hogie.Harmonica @bubby.graves Just managed to get back before the weekend but with a lot of paperwork, Thanks for your comments/input. as previously mentioned Slidemiester was/is the chromatic forum but is now effectively dead to anything new although some good stuff is still available https://www.slidemeister.com/. I suspect there are quite a few more chrom players on this forum who will hopefully comment. Jay1
For me the main difference is that I’m learning phrases that I’d never consider on a diatonic. But after you’ve really mastered them on chromatic, you think “well shucks, why don’t I give it a good go on the diatonic?”
Half the time it’s really not that hard. You just had to have it firmly in your ear, practice the note transitions, and believe in yourself.
Sounds hokey but its is true.
Also, I’ve been learning how to corner switch. I don’t mean wagging the tongue back and forth for special effect, I mean intentionally playing out of the left side of a tongue block, in order to facilitate leaps and lines with octave displacement. It really opens up a lot of territory on the chromatic. But I’m trying it out on diatonic and there’s some potential there.
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That’s brilliant when I’m up and running a bit more, I’ll have a go at those techniques but that would probably be a long way off yet. I just a beginner on the Chromonica although I do enjoy it when I play, pretty much got Third position D down now, and I’m going to be playing that for some time before I progress into other scales
I started playing the harmonica in the Air Force. I studied the piano all my childhood and into my youth. To me the transition to the harmonica felt easier as a chromatic because I could play all the scales on a single instrument and I didn’t have to lug several diatonics with me. Additionally I liked the Chromatic because I read music and could sight play using the chromatic. I’ve stuck with a chromatic, mainly Hohner 270s (I have a 280 but the 270 is more compact than the 280. The 280 gives me one more octave) since 1968. It’s not my primary instrument but it gives me great personal pleasure. Besides the piano and synth (Kurtzweil 3600) I also play organ and have done a bit of ecclesiastical and theatrical work but again the organ is even less portable than a grand piano. This is just an observation but it appears to me that learning a diatonic would appeal to someone who does not read music but wants to play immediately, the scale is built in. I may be mistaken since I’ve never played a diatonic but I was considering a Special 20 recently in the key of C just to mess around with it. So I’m not really qualified to make any suggestions as to which might be better. I’m just saying why I play a chromatic.
I have a genuine question. I know I can play the C scale in the Lydian mode on my chromatic, what diatonic would one use?
I wanted to join a chromatic group/forum so badly, but the people on Facebook want me to give up diatonic, give up lip pursing, or have a huge ego. I want to make a chromatic forum which is open to LGBT+ people like myself because SlideMeister is against anything left-leaning, including trans people and that got my comment removed from the group because I mentioned that I’m non-binary and apparently that had nothing to do with the harmonica (but it does). I’m also getting stalked by George Miklas because he doesn’t like it that I’m disabled.
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My son, and their Partner are both non Binary, my son like me is autistic. My opinion and I don’t really care if people don’t like it. Is that it takes all sorts of people to make a world and without those people it would be a very uniform and boring place. And even if it was a uniform and boring place there would still be some Jackass out there complaining it wasn’t uniform enough or boring enough. My Wife and I are Pagans I’m in my 60’s she’s in her 50’s I am autistic, I’m also a veteran, my Wife is disabled due to her work taking it’s toll. We don’t look like anyone else we don’t dress like anyone else and we don’t judge anyone else. Life is for living but there seems to be a huge groundswell of people intent on judging others and telling them how to live. My reply to them is simple F–k em. Live like you want as long as your not harming anyone else, just be happy.
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@KeroroRinChou @Andy2 I have a framed sign in my room, it’s often, incorrectly attributed to Voltaire but was written by Evelyn B Hall in her 1906 Voltaire biography it reads 'I disapprove of what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it’ I used it in Court today. It is unarguable, inoffensive, can be used in almost any situation and is very effective. @KeroroRinChou I and I suspect others on the forum won’t care if you’re skybluepink with 6 arms and lean so far to the Left you fall over, it doesn’t matter, if you want to play chromatic and/or diatonic or any other form of harmonica you’ll be made to feel welcome and get any help you may need. Jay1
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That’s a great post @Jay1 I’m neither right or left leaning, I opted out of politics years ago. To my mind all politicians promise change but it never happens, Why? Because they have an invested interest to keep the status quo. So I’m A-political. Not interested. But I really dislike the injustices that are foisted upon on us by those with a vested interest that call what we have a democracy.