Hello, Ellis900, let me throw some random stuff your way.
First, try to warm the harmonica under your arm or on a heating blanket at a medium-low temp before playing. You want to try to get the internal temperature at your breath temperature or not-so-funny things happen with wind savers. Well, they will anyway but this will slow that down, haha.
1a.) Your Hohner Educator 10 is more then likely in the key of C. This makes the first C major scale (C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C): 1blow, 1draw, 2blow, 2draw, 3blow, 3draw, 4draw, 4blow. You may note that this is the same scale found in the center octave on a C diatonic harmonica (4blow, 4draw, 5blow, 5draw, 6blow, 6draw, 7draw, 7blow).
1b.) Your C# major scale will be (button held in the entire time)(C#, D#, E#, F#, G#, A#, B#, C#): 1blow, 1draw, 2blow, 2draw, 3blow, 3draw, 4draw, 4blow. Yep, same as above.
Just a little modification of Ryan's otherwise great advice: The Educator 10 doesn't have any windsavers, so no need to pre-warm it! Note that this also means you can bend notes like on a diatonic (a little harder to do because Chro's aren't as air-tight). That means that you can bend in the blues-scale notes for a bit more "bluesieness", but you can also hit the button instead if you want to get pitch-perfect altered notes. If it's blues you are after, start by playing it the same way you'd play blues in third-position on a diatonic (i.e., take hole 1 draw as your root note)
Here's a little review video I made after I got my Educator 10...
Great job, Isaac! Love the first vid. I won't get to check out the 2nd one for a while.
I am a chromatic newb and just learned about the 10 from the Musicians Friend ad that came out this last week. I think I will pick one up and finally get to work on Richard Hunter's Jazz Harp book, lol.
***Ordered one this morning. It will be weeks before I play around with it, but still look exciting! ---------- Mike Quicksilver Custom Harmonicas VHT Special 6 Mods
Last Edited by on Nov 09, 2011 8:00 AM
I've been fooling around with trying to learn chrom for a couple of months. i found it very helpful to learn the major scale and then learn the blues scale in each key. This gets me learning to work the slide by ear.
The biggest thing was learning to think in terms of SHARPS. Pushing the button sharps the pitch (takes the pitch UP a half step). So, to play 7b you have to play 6#. 3b = 2#, etc. As blues players we tend to think in terms of flats. So, that's an important mental adjustment one needs to make in order to play chrom.
I'm playing a Suzuki SCX-48 and a Suzuki SCX-56. Very responsive nice playing chroms but they do have wind saver valves.
Great book: "Mel Bay's Complete Chromatic Harmonica Method" by Billy Joe Holman. It has tab for ALL scales and ALL modes in ALL keys. Very useful. Richard Hunter's "Jazz Harp" is really good, too.
Last Edited by on Nov 09, 2011 8:40 AM
Does it help you visualize a diatonic more readily? Like can you picture the scales you've learned on chromatic as they'd appear on a diatonic?
I am awesome at doing that as it pertains to a C harmonica, but if you asked me what the note names and relationships are on a Bb, I could play them but not articulate what I was doing.
I've got an ED10, in fact it's the only chromatic I have. I only use it for one purpose at present...to play The Star Spangled Banner. :-) But I hope that soon I can start dabbling in the chromatic world some more. ---------- Hawkeye Kane
Thanks Mike! I just actually re-watched those vids to remember what I said exactly, since it's now been almost two years since I got my Educator 10. I still stick to everything I said back then! I've played that harp a lot in the last two years, and I still think it's a great little harp, and has an amazing price/quality ratio. I haven't had to readjust any reeds since that video, but I DID replace the spring, following some advice I got from the late great Chris Michalek. He told me to use some wire cutters to snap out the spring part of a large safety pin, so that it's the same size as the spring that's in there. Then, with a little adjustment, fit that in there instead. It's got a bit lower tension, so the slide action is smoother. But that's ALL I've done to this harp. It still plays great! The biggest adjustment for me was getting used to the larger hole spacing, and remembering the note duplication between holes 4 + 5 blow and 8 + 9 blow. ---------- == I S A A C ==
@HarpNinja: On chrom, there's alternative ways to get certain notes. For example, in each register, you have the side by side double Cs which are blow notes. Then you can also get C as a draw note by playing B sharp. Then there's F which is a draw note but can be played as a blow note by playing E#. So, since there are alternative ways to play those notes, I don't find it all that useful to visualize patterns for chrom.
Also, as you get past easy keys like C and D, the patterns involve breath shifts and more operation of the slide so spatial relationships that are more easily visualized don't help you remember when to press the button.
Last Edited by on Nov 09, 2011 9:12 AM
I love my Educator 10. I actually use it in 3rd position to play "I'm Ready" with my band. I must admit that I do not use the slide. I saw Kim Wilson and Billly Branch use it this way and gave it a try.
I know what you mean about visualizing a keyboard when playing a diatonic. But the chrom is a completely different instrument because of the button.
What Issac was saying in his vid that slide out gives you all the major scale notes and slide in give you the accidentals makes no sense. That's ONLY true for the key of C major. In any other key, (except A natural minor) you are pressing the slide in for certain major (and non-major) scale notes.
What really helped me get used to working the slide was learning the blues scale for each key immediately after learning the major scale for that key. I'm at a point where i can PLAY chrom okay, but I'm not close to being able to IMPROVISE on chrom, except in D minor since that's pretty much the same thing as playing a diatonic in third position, But I've been able to THAT for 20 years--I don't really consider playing chrom in D minor to have much relationship to actually being able to play chrom.
There's a local player who everybody is impressed with because he plays chrom in any key. But he actually carries 12 chroms and just plays them all as if he were playing a diatonic in third position. BFD.
Last Edited by on Nov 09, 2011 9:48 AM
I think, and I could be off, that having to press the button is what will help me visualize things. I was thinking two ways - to understand basic scale construction as related to C, and then of C to other keys...like what you're saying.
Either way, I am just getting it to noodle and maybe pick up a couple new musical ideas...but it might be fun to actually try and learn-learn some chrom as it pertains to theory. ---------- Mike Quicksilver Custom Harmonicas VHT Special 6 Mods
@HarpNija; A huge musical advantage playing chrom is the ability to arpeggiate ANY chord. the problem in learning to actually do this is the lack of any printed materials laying out tab for all the arpeggios.
I don't sight read well enough to learn arpeggios from a sax or flute instructional book. I might be able to do it if the notation for the arpeggios in the sax exercise book I have was labelled in letters (Cm7th, Adim, Gsus4, etc.). But I can't figure out what arpeggio I'm looking at even if I am able to identify the written notes from the chart.
As far as scales are concerned, if you learn the C major scale and the C blues scale, then the D major scale and the D blues scale, and then the E major scale and E blues scale and then the F major scale and F blues scale and so on though, G, A and Bb, you really start to HEAR how the slide works. That way you're not all wrapped up in thinking about when to push the button. You kinda sorta start to HEAR when you need to push it.
Then there's different kinds of minors and modes.
One way to do it is to stack tetra chords (the 4 note patterns that make up scales and modes) which makes for less to remember since for 12 major keys there are just 6 tetra chord patterns. But i haven't tried doing it that way.
Last Edited by on Nov 09, 2011 12:56 PM
Ok, for major scales tetra chords work off the circle of fifths. Start with C. The last 4 notes of the C scale are the first 4 notes of the G scale. The last 4 notes of the G scale are the first 4 notes of the D scale. The last 4 notes of the D scale are the first 4 notes of the A scale. The last 4 notes of the A scale are the first 4 notes of the E scale. And so on around the circle of fifths. So...each of these 4 note "patterns" is a tetra chord. Learn 6 patterns and stack them in the right order and you've got all 12 major scales.
I believe there is a different pattern for modal tetra chords which I have written down somewhere at home and I'm in my office right now.
The use of tetra chords to simplify learning breath and button patterns for playing scales on chrom is that you only need to learn 6 4 note patterns instead of 12 8 note patterns. For major scales you stack the tetra chords (4 note patterns) in the sequence generated by the circle of fifths to generate all 12 major scales. You modify the pattern for the 12 relative minors (Aeolean mode).
Since i have no formal music education I may be subject to correction, but i think i have this tetra chord thing figured out correctly. I just can't remember how the pattern is altered for modes since i haven't actually been using or working with tetra chords to learn chrom. I just figured out the tetra chord thing as a possible approach when i started trying to learn chrom, but then i got the Holman book a few days later and just started working from tab instead.
I never use the circle of fifths to figure out positions, but it's certainly useful for all sorts of other stuff. One of the bandleaders I work with says if you look at it and contemplate it all sorts of patterns will emerge. Well, one of those patterns is tetra chords.
There's some good stuff posted on the web about how bass guitar players can construct bass lines using tetra chord patterns. Those explanations of tetra chords are pretty clear, you just have to ignore the bass guitar tab. I forget which actual sites for bass lay this stuff out, but you can run a Google search.
Hope this helps.
Last Edited by on Nov 09, 2011 4:08 PM
It looks like Billy Branch is playing one of Brendan Powers CX16 which is a CX12 that Brendan spliced an extra octave on to. I wish Hohner would make a CX14 and Cx16 model. The CX12 is great chromatic and I am very certain that if they made the other models they would be a very big sellers. I also recommend the low end Suzuki SCX 12,14 &16. They have a one piece slide which goes into a groove in the mouth piece producing a slide mechanism that doesn't stick like the traditional three piece system and they sound very good. If it sticks just soak in some water at mouthpiece level and it is quickly freed. The Slide is your friend, learn how to use it and do not fear it. I even use it a lot in 3rd position.
@ Michael, I'll add what I understand about tetra chord see if it helps. Tetra chord means four notes and is the core of major scale; you split any major scale in half you get two tetra chords that has the same pattern. Two whole tones and one half tone, start from C major you can go forward or backward to build another major scales and complete the circle of fifth. If you wanna go forward (means you're gonna build scales in sharp keys) make the upper tetra chord of C major scale the lower tetra chord of the next scale, so the next scale will start with G A B and C and what you have to do next is adding one sharp to change the pattern of the upper tetra chord to "two whole tones and one half tone" which in this case is F sharp, so you get D E F# G as a upper half of the G major scale. And it's always work like this as you go up, adding one more sharp at a time. Same idea applies to flat keys as well by reversing everything. Start from C again now make LOWER tetra chord an UPPER tetra chord of the former scale (think circlf or fifth) so now you got C D E F and now count down to make LOWER tetra chord - F G A B. To fit this into the pattern you need one flat at Bb and now you got F major. Keep doing this, adding one flat at a time you'll get Bb, Eb and so on..
P.S. once you understand how it works you don't need to start from C major, you can start at any key as long as you know the key signature.
Got my Educator last night. I haven't had much time to monkey with it, but I did listen to Michael Rubin's vids while working on harps last night.
I, of course, monkeyed with some 1st and 3rd position stuff because I could. It sounded like a chromatic, lol. I don't know enough to really comment. I did bust out Jazz Harp and try a few scales.
I had my first blow in a chrom two days ago. I have a loaner Larry Adler, and believe that Santa will be dropping a Hohner Super 64 down my chimney in the next couple of months or so. After having the chrom in my mouth, the diatonic feels incredibly easy to handle!
One suggestion I have is to ignore all the harmonica players who insist on calling the button-in scale "C#"; think of it as Db instead.
I don't think I've ever actually played a piece of music in C# major. If I did, I'd have to deal with the notes E# and B#, inducing unwanted brain strain. Db is much friendlier.
Last Edited by on Nov 18, 2011 12:40 PM
I was a single parent last night. My daugher went to the toy room to get a harmonica. She asked me where mine was, so I grabbed the 10 and we started jamming.
Time for me to put in a plug for my favorite retuning of the chromatic--bebop tuning. You know how there's two C notes next to each other on 4 and 5 and 8 and 9? Bebop changes the C on 4 and 8 to a Bb--so the blow chord is C7, C#7 with the button. Bb is the first flat--so you can play F without the button--and it makes lots of other keys easier too. But not sharp keys--at least not D, A and E (OK, it makes E a little easier)--I find those keys harder on chrom. I also like to start on G3, but that's another post . . .
Last Edited by on Nov 20, 2011 6:25 AM
