Dirty-South Blues Harp Forum: For blues harmonica players, students, and fans

Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! > Blues on a Chromatic?

Blues on a Chromatic?

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jnorem 146 posts Apr 07, 2014 8:39 PM	I've been working on that for a long time. My chromatic harmonicas are made so much better than my diatonics. They're just better built instruments. And I like the idea of walking into a jam scenario carrying only one harmonica and playing it in any key that comes up. The trick to it is playing it like you're playing a diatonic. You have to forget about playing precisely and instead play more loosely. It's impossible to make it sound like the real thing, even playing with a good microphone and amplifier. But it's a good thing for all of us to know, I think, to know how to play in a few keys on the chromatic, if for no other reason than it's a hell of a lot of fun. I can't get anywhere trying to put up a link to a video (this forum is very weird) but here's the thing to copy and paste up in the search window. This guy, Bill Barret, is really good. He's playing through a Sonny Jr., in the key of G. It's like cross harp but you have all the notes. Can't bend much, though. I hope you enjoy it. Gnarly showed it to me and it knocks me out. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yf3aIJhC8mY ---------- Call me J Last Edited by jnorem on Apr 07, 2014 8:41 PM
Jehosaphat 721 posts Apr 07, 2014 9:57 PM	Tasty
jnorem 148 posts Apr 07, 2014 10:06 PM	Thanks, Jehosaphat. ---------- Call me J
droffilcal 65 posts Apr 07, 2014 11:23 PM	Bill Barrett is a bad dude. Period.
jnorem 149 posts Apr 08, 2014 12:00 AM	I never got around to asking my question, why I started the thread in the first place. Does anyone else here play blues on the chromatic? ---------- Call me J
WinslowYerxa 542 posts Apr 08, 2014 12:51 AM	Lots of people play it in third position, or also tenth - a semitone higher than third, easy when you just hold the slide in but very different when you put the slide in play. Here’s a tune where I play in both keys, called Solstice Here's one where I play in B on a C chromatic, called Blue Chrome And here's the article where I write about what I played, from the old harmonicasessions.com online harmonica zine. Here's one in E. While it's in 12-bar blues form, you probably wouldn't consider this blues. It's called Cup of Wine. Here's another one in E, again, in a 12-bar but un-bluesy form, called Spanish Changes ---------- Winslow Find out about the 2014 Spring Harmonica Collective! SPONSORED BY Lone Wolf Blues Company Rockin’ Ron’s Music For Less BlowsMeAway Productions Slim’s Custom Cases HarpGear Seydel & Soehne Last Edited by WinslowYerxa on Apr 09, 2014 5:05 PM
SuperBee 1903 posts Apr 08, 2014 12:56 AM	Those links are not working for me Winslow. I get a 404 error
WinslowYerxa 543 posts Apr 08, 2014 1:18 AM	Weird. They seem to work now, even though they were correctly formatted to begin with. ---------- Winslow Find out about the 2014 Spring Harmonica Collective! SPONSORED BY Lone Wolf Blues Company Rockin’ Ron’s Music For Less BlowsMeAway Productions Slim’s Custom Cases HarpGear Seydel & Soehne Last Edited by WinslowYerxa on Apr 09, 2014 5:05 PM
laurent2015 687 posts Apr 08, 2014 5:34 AM	Useful tips here (Pat Missin): http://www.patmissin.com/articles/misc1.html I remember Winslow wrote on TB a chromatic as well: seems important for playing blues.
Michael Rubin 861 posts Apr 08, 2014 8:25 AM	I can play chromatic blues in any key. I remember "cracking the code" and finding a thought process that opened the doors to it. Over the years I have showed up to blues gigs with just a chromatic. It comes down to scales. If you know D F works in the key of D, you know that F is 3 keyboard notes higher than D. Therefore C Eb works in C. One of the first things I would suggest anyone do is learn all 12 major scales on chromatic. I recommend my videos 2 through 4 and 19 through 26. http://michaelrubinharmonica.com/pageVideoArchive.html Once you learn your 12 major scales on the chromatic, send me a message and I'll give my next suggestion.
laurent2015 688 posts Apr 08, 2014 9:06 AM	...learn the twelve minor scales...?
timeistight 1547 posts Apr 08, 2014 9:45 AM	Which twelve? I like 12th position on chromatic. The tonic and fifth are available with the slide in or out which gives you lots of options: Major pentatonic is available without touching the slide. Minor pentatonic is available without releasing the slide. The full major scale and the blues scale each require only one slide move.
WinslowYerxa 544 posts Apr 08, 2014 9:48 AM	While I agree with Michael's exhortation to learn scales, I have a simpler suggestion that can get you started exploring and give you an incentive to learn the scales: 1. Finding the "lifeboat notes" Find the tonic note of the key (C for the key of C, A for the key of A, etc.) Now play along with a backing track using just that note. Do it in at least two different octaves. Now find the 5th note in that scale - just count up 5, and add any sharps or flats to make that note exactly 7 semitones above the tonic note. Or just go clockwise one position on the circle of fifths. Play with a backing track using just the fifth note of the scale, again in alt least two different octaves. Why do these one-note playalongs? To memorize the ear sound and the position of the harmonica in your hands and mouth for those notes, the two most important notes in the key. 3. Noodling As you play along on the tonic or dominant (fifth) notes, start exploring the immediate neighborhood.: -- Press the slide in or let it out -- Change breath direction in the same hole (with or without slide change) -- Move one hole to the right or left on the same breath. Try it with a slide change -- Move one hole to the right or left with a breath change. Try it with a slide change. Noodling systematically like this will bring you note that give different effects, good and bad. 4. Finding connectors between the tonic and dominant notes Blues doesn't always (or even often) use the standard major or minor scale. It has all sorts of exceptions and alterations to the scale (as in the blues scale) and also will leave notes out of the scale, as it moves from one chord note to the next. Try finding your way back and forth between the dominant note an the tonic four steps above it, using only one connector note. Some will sound good, others not so much, at least for blues. Try finding a two-note connector between the dominant and the tonic above it. When moving between the dominant and the tonic fives steps below it, make sure to use the third note in the chord as a stepping stone. This is the note five positions away from the tonic clockwise on the circle of fifths. Try moving from the dominant through the third to the tonic, using one additional note as a connector. Try lowering the third by one semitone. ---------- Winslow Find out about the 2014 Spring Harmonica Collective! SPONSORED BY Lone Wolf Blues Company Rockin’ Ron’s Music For Less BlowsMeAway Productions Slim’s Custom Cases HarpGear Seydel & Soehne Last Edited by WinslowYerxa on Apr 09, 2014 5:05 PM
Piro39 62 posts Apr 08, 2014 9:51 AM	Another useful scale to learn is the major blues scale which is the 2nd mode of the regular blues scale. C blues is C, E Flat, F,G Flat, G, B flat, C E Flat Major Blues Scale is E Flat,F,G Flat,G, B Flat,C,E Flat. This major blues scale is very melodic and you can sometimes mix them up as long as the blues isn't in a minor key. You can hear this major blues scale in a lot of New Orleans type blues.
MP 3154 posts Apr 08, 2014 11:42 AM	Winslow's third post is one of the reasons I check MBH as if it were my morning newspaper. the info/lesson here is priceless. Thank you Winslow! ---------- Affordable Reed Replacement Marks Harmonica Tune-up Click user name MP for contact info
tmf714 2490 posts Apr 08, 2014 11:55 AM	Nobody does it like Paul Delay-
tmf714 2491 posts Apr 08, 2014 12:04 PM	The band is in G-Paul is playing a C chromatic in 2nd position- Last Edited by tmf714 on Apr 08, 2014 12:07 PM
Gnarly 977 posts Apr 08, 2014 2:04 PM	+ MP Thanks as always WY
jnorem 150 posts Apr 08, 2014 2:42 PM	I'm firmly in the learn-the-scales camp. Scales are the key to unlocking the instrument, I think, scales and arpeggiated chords. Mix them up while you're practicing. It isn't like a diatonic with its "built-in" licks. But conquering the chromatic is a great feeling, well worth the effort, and I believe it makes you a better all-around harp player. ---------- Call me J
WinslowYerxa 545 posts Apr 08, 2014 3:48 PM	I'm not suggesting that my investigation procedure is a substitute for scales - I practice all my scales, and it shows in my playing. But the investigations make connections by location and sound, and they allow you to hear possibilities that you might not find by playing scales and arpeggios. Those investigations also help you have a feeling of rootedness in the key, which you can very easily lose on more complex music. And the chromatic actually does have built-in licks like the diatonic. You can stumble over them while playing scales and arpeggios, and also while doing local investigations. Some of them, especial the third-positoin blues one, you pick up by hearing other players. ---------- Winslow Find out about the 2014 Spring Harmonica Collective! SPONSORED BY Lone Wolf Blues Company Rockin’ Ron’s Music For Less BlowsMeAway Productions Slim’s Custom Cases HarpGear Seydel & Soehne Last Edited by WinslowYerxa on Apr 09, 2014 5:05 PM
WinslowYerxa 546 posts Apr 08, 2014 4:16 PM	One problem with using scales to learn blues in every key is that blues is not based on scales. The so-called blues scale is an artificial construct used mostly by jazz musicians and even then used sparingly. True, you hear something like it in the very oldest rural blues (but on close inspection, it turns out not to be the standard blues scale after all), but most blues since uses a much wider note choice. The very fact that a blues in, say, C, is based on a C7 chord (contains a Bb, in contrast with the C major scale) and an F7 chord (contains an Eb, again in contrast with the C scale) right away puts it at odds with the standard 7-note scale - it already has 9 notes. Add the flat fifth (Gb) and now you have 10 out of the 12 notes of the chromatic scale. About the most sensible take on all this that I've encountered is in jazz composer and theorist George Russell's book "The Lydian Chromatic Concept." His view is that you take the major scale, take the three blue notes (flat 3, flat 5, flat 7) and add them to the scale, you get what he calls a "funkier major scale." Except how do you practice that as a "scale" that you run up and down? You can do that -run up and down it - but it won't reveal the important stuff. It's kind of like driving on the elevated freeway that takes you from one side of the city to the other and wondering why you're not experiencing all the colorful neighborhoods - you're zooming over their heads. You can take the 10-note scale (or, hell, go all the way and take the chromatic scale) and pare it down into smaller pathways, like the minor pentatonic or blues scale (e.g., then C blues scale), and then its relative minor version (e.g. the A blues scale), and overlay one on the other. Or some other scale-based strategy. Those approaches can be productive. While you're at it, check out the second mode of the diminished scale, and the fourth and fifth modes of the ascending melodic minor. Oh, and the whole-tone scale. And whatever flavor of bebop scale fits with a dominant 7th chord. All good. But you can overdose on scales pretty fast. Branching out from node points by action-based experiments, though, can let you hear the results of actions and find the pretty connections. Now you get to taste the cuisine and the architecture and the nightlife of those neighborhoods that you don't see from the freeway. ---------- Winslow Find out about the 2014 Spring Harmonica Collective! SPONSORED BY Lone Wolf Blues Company Rockin’ Ron’s Music For Less BlowsMeAway Productions Slim’s Custom Cases HarpGear Seydel & Soehne Last Edited by WinslowYerxa on Apr 09, 2014 5:06 PM
timeistight 1550 posts Apr 08, 2014 5:26 PM	Winslow, that may be the most sensible writing about note choices in blues that I have ever read (and I've read lots)! Bravo!!
tmf714 2492 posts Apr 08, 2014 5:39 PM	The most important thing you can learn about blues chromatic are the degrees of the scale- http://www.musictheory.net/lessons/23 Its the simplest form of theory needed to play blues on the chromatic.
Frank 4142 posts Apr 08, 2014 6:31 PM	I'm just piddler, so I'll just use the little 3rd pos knowledge I have from the diatonic and transfer it to the chrome. This is an improvisation on an "A" CX-12 that was given to me by a member here and I named the song after him :)
Frank 4143 posts Apr 08, 2014 6:53 PM
kudzurunner 4646 posts Apr 08, 2014 7:06 PM	I'm at the bottom of the heap when it comes to technique on a chromatic. All I've got is heavy swing and a basic sense of a third-position scale on diatonic transferred to chrom, plus a few moves that come from overblowing. The fact that I can get anything at all out of a chromatic harp is a testament to DIY stubbornness. There's a lot of fun to be had that way. Here's a D shuffle from the Blues Doctors; it's my first recording on chromatic, amazingly, after 40 years on the diatonic: Last Edited by kudzurunner on Apr 08, 2014 7:08 PM
Gnarly 978 posts Apr 08, 2014 7:22 PM	Thanks again Winslow! Now, the next time I unearth my copy of the Russell book, I'll have an idea of what to look for. It's not a big book, but it is dense.
Rustydusty 4 posts Apr 09, 2014 2:32 PM	Nothing of music theory in this post but My wife gave me a Hering "Blues 48" chromatic I had been checking out online, for a wedding present! I thought; what could be better than a "bending" chromatic! Well, it is no more bendable than any other chromatic so I just use it for the occasional jazz number our band does. Some good chromatic blues tunes I like to do: "Sugar Beat" by Duster Bennett, "At Last" by Etta James. A fun early jazz number is "Rhapsody in Blue" by George Gershwin.
Gnarly 979 posts Apr 09, 2014 3:23 PM	I thought Hering harps were real bendy? @Kudzu That sounds pretty bendy--and not locked into that octave thing, thanks very much . . . Last Edited by Gnarly on Apr 09, 2014 3:25 PM
Rustydusty 6 posts Apr 09, 2014 3:40 PM	You can bend them, but not like a diatonic which is what I expected with a name like "Blues 48". It's no more bendable than my "super chromonica 64" or a "Tombo Unica" I have. My "chrometta 16" is probably the most bendable slide harp I have.
tmf714 2495 posts Apr 09, 2014 3:50 PM	Dennis Gruneling can overblow and bend on the chromatic-and it sound better than most anyone I have heard trying to do it-he makes it seem effortless-who else does that?
WinslowYerxa 548 posts Apr 09, 2014 4:36 PM	You can only overblow a few notes on the chromatic in the top octave. Valves on chromatic prevent overblows and overdraws because the valves direct all the air to the reed that plays normally, locking the "other" reed - the one that plays the overblow -out of the airflow. On most holes, removing the inside valves (required for overblows) makes the harp unacceptably leaky - except in the top octave. Bending notes down on chromatics is totally possible - I do it a lot, and so do many players. You can bend notes down much farther on a chromatic than you can on a diatonic (three semitones is quite manageable in the middle register - in fact, this was a feature of Jerry Murad's rendition of Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White), but those bends don't produce as rich a sound as on a diatonic and are harder to control - again, a result of valving, which prevents both reeds from interacting in a bend the way they do on diatonics. ---------- Winslow Find out about the 2014 Spring Harmonica Collective! SPONSORED BY Lone Wolf Blues Company Rockin’ Ron’s Music For Less BlowsMeAway Productions Slim’s Custom Cases HarpGear Seydel & Soehne Last Edited by WinslowYerxa on Apr 10, 2014 8:52 AM
jnorem 154 posts Apr 09, 2014 9:05 PM	My experience is that it's difficult to play meaningful bends on the chromatic. Yes, it can be done but why would you need to? The piano can't bend notes either, but look at all the great blues music that's been played on it. It's a mistake, I think, to try to play the chromatic like it's a diatonic. It can only lead to frustration. Why not embrace the chromatic harmonica for what it is? Look at Bill Barrett, he's right in there. ---------- Call me J Last Edited by jnorem on Apr 09, 2014 9:09 PM
blingty 20 posts Apr 10, 2014 6:06 AM	Some good points on this so far in terms of approaches. I have to disagree on the bends though; for me, that's in the case where dual-reed bends are available, but I think Bill proves that the single reed bends work well too. It's something I've been working on for the last while, playing blues on a half-valved diminished chromatic harmonica - it give you bends on 8 out of 12 chromatic notes in an octave. I've been focusing on playing pure blues on the chrom for a while, playing bluesy things and seeing where all the bends and expressive points are before mixing back in real jazz lines. I've been putting some blues harp solos that I like onto the chrom in multiple keys to see how they work. I don't have recorded examples of this right now as I haven't been playing out recently. I guess it's a work in progress but it's something I've dedicated quite a bit of time to doing in the last months as I found I was still going out to the blues harp for very bluesy sounds and I wanted to have all of that available in a single, cohesive approach to music (particularly improvised music) - and what better way than to limit the form and to some extent, note choices. Blingty
blingty 21 posts Apr 10, 2014 6:20 AM	There was a French player who had valves stripped off a (I believe) regular tuned chrom and was overblowing and bending. Nicolas Moreau, I think.
Diggsblues 1320 posts Apr 10, 2014 7:11 AM	These are all done on a C Chromatic 2016 G blues A blues/minor D blues 3rd postion G blues ---------- Last Edited by Diggsblues on Apr 10, 2014 7:18 AM
chromaticblues 1555 posts Apr 10, 2014 9:28 AM	Chromatics are like diatonics in the sense that they leak air. Chroms are more complicated with more moving parts which makes them more leaky. That's why they are harder to bend. It is very possible to bend on a chrom and (as TMF714) said it can be done in a way that makes it sound effortless and (my words) musical. The fact is (unfortunately) the more spend on your chrom the easier it will be to bend. For the most part! The CX12 is what I believe to be the easiest chrom to bend. I also think this is the best harp to half valve so that it can have diatonic type bends on the draw notes (except holes 4 and 8) and retain the chromatic blow bends (except holes 4 and 8). On holes 4 and 8 it is the opposite. How do I do that your probably saying? Easy! You don't have to send it to anyone! If you can operate a screw driver without cutting yourself than you can do it. You simply remove the reedplate body from the mouthpiece and remove the windsavers on holes 6,7,9 and 10 if there is one on 10. Then do the same to the other reedplate. doesn't matter which one you start on because your removing the same savers on both. Now you can either take the plates off to remove the inside wind savers on hole 8 or you can stick a small jewelers slotted screw driver in and pry in out. I'm lazy and pry them out. If you get the screw driver under the windsaver and push it down to where it is glued on then just push a little more making sure it doesn't go into the reed. You push back and lift it up at the same time. Sometimes they pop right off. You will probably have to gap the reeds after this. Just play it and if it seems airy look at the reeds with a magnifying glass at 5 or 6x. If one hole seems better than another compare them first before you do anything. The airy one probably has wider gaps. OK I also remove the slider and put a piece of scotch tape on one side (doesn't matter which). Then cut the tape to the shape of the slider. I use an exact-o-knife for that. Then apply the smallest amount of Vaseline humanly possible to the slider before putting it back in. The Vaseline quiets the slider down and makes it more air tight. When ever the slide starts to get sticky remove it and run hot water over it and wipe it with your index finger and your thumb a couple times. dry it gently and reapply. Half valving the lower half so that it isn't airy involves embossing. If that is something you would like to do and you are capable of doing! My advice is to do hole five lightly and increase the amount of embossing as the reeds get longer with hole one embossed as much as you can without the reeds hitting.
tmf714 2496 posts Apr 10, 2014 12:28 PM	I am fairly sure the above mentioned technique is similar to what Dennis does to his chromatics-he can overblow on the lower holes-not just the upper octave.
barbequebob 2524 posts Apr 10, 2014 1:08 PM	As far as bending on a chromatic goes, I definitely agree that with a chromatic, there are more places for air to leak but because of the valves, which allows a single reed to get more air, to get a bend with a chromatic, you CAN'T do it like a the way most players too often do the bending technique they tend to use with a diatonic, and that's use MUCH MORE breath force because it simply will NOT respond to that kind of breath force and you have to learn to do more with the use of making very subtle changes with your embouchure as well as the inside shape of your mouth to make it happen. Part of it also has to do with the design of the mouthpiece itself. With Herings, you can bend as much as a full 1/2 step but NEVER beyond that. With most Hohners, generally not more than 1/4 step, but I found out by messing around a bit, that you can bend 1/2 step, but with Hohners, you have to move the mouthpiece about 1/8th of an inch away from you to mimic the effect of how the Hering mouthpieces work. The closest to the Hering mouthpieces on a Hohner would be either a CX12 Jazz (which has a differnt mouthpiece) or any of the old CBH chromatics, and all this is done without doing ANY regapping at all. ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
barbequebob 2525 posts Apr 10, 2014 1:15 PM	I also love playing blues on a chromatic in 1st position, which is something George Harmonica Smith occasionally did and whenever I pulled that out when there were other harp players in the audience, it almost always freaked them out. Here's a few examples of George Smith playing first position chromatic for blues: ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
WinslowYerxa 550 posts Apr 10, 2014 2:29 PM	@tmf714 - I'll see Dennis tomorrow at the Harmonica Masterclass and will ask him about this. ---------- Winslow Find out about the 2014 Spring Harmonica Collective! SPONSORED BY Find out about the 2014 Spring Harmonica Collective! SPONSORED BY Lone Wolf Blues Company Rockin’ Ron’s Music For Less BlowsMeAway Productions Slim’s Custom Cases HarpGear Seydel & Soehne
tmf714 2497 posts Apr 10, 2014 8:07 PM	@Winslow-while your at it,ask him about the first verse of "Juke"-
WinslowYerxa 552 posts Apr 10, 2014 8:09 PM	Why? He wasn't the one playing it. ---------- Winslow Find out about the 2014 Spring Harmonica Collective! SPONSORED BY Find out about the 2014 Spring Harmonica Collective! SPONSORED BY Lone Wolf Blues Company Rockin’ Ron’s Music For Less BlowsMeAway Productions Slim’s Custom Cases HarpGear Seydel & Soehne
tmf714 2498 posts Apr 11, 2014 5:36 AM	Just ask him how many notes Walter played in the first bar-youre saying you slowed it down and Walter plays seven notes-Dennis and Joe Filisko and myself are saying he played 5-
chromaticblues 1557 posts Apr 11, 2014 6:46 AM	@tmf714 I'm glad you brought up overblows on the chom. After I read your post I started thinking about how that works. Honestly I don't know! So when I got home from work I went straight to my harp case and tried it. Little did I know I've been doing it for about 15 years and didn't know it! @Winslow If I'm not mistaken isn't what Stevie Wonder perfected back in the 60's. He would play a blow note with the slide in starting the note overblown as much as he Could (I think?). Release the overblow, release the slide then push the slide in and release quickly. It's been so long I don't remember if he did it or I got the idea to do it from listening to him? Anyway it is VERY easy to do! It seems much more natural sounding and effortless from my vantage point than it does with a diatonic.
tmf714 2499 posts Apr 11, 2014 8:03 AM	I would not say its VERY easy to do-it depends on a few things. #1-your ability-not just your playing ability ,but your musical ability as well. It takes a well trained ear to know when those notes are playable in a blues context. #2-Breath force-incredibly light breath force is required to obtain,sustain and add vibrato to those overblows. #3-Embouchure-fairly sure Dennis is tongue blocking the chromatic overblows-he may be slightly changing the direction of the airstream,but I believe he is using the tongue block method.
Michael Rubin 865 posts Apr 11, 2014 8:41 AM	Chromaticblues, I am concerned you are confused about what an overblow is. I have never heard Stevie Wonder play an overblow. Overblows take the note built into the harmonica and make it go higher in pitch. Get a tuner. Holes 1, 5, 9 will change the C note to an Eb note. Holes 2, 6 and 10 will take the E note to an F# note. Hole 3, 7 and 11 will turn the G note into a Bb note. Hole 4, 8 and 12 can overdraw the draw note from B to C#. That is the holes without the button. Play one of the holes without overblowing into your tuner. Now overblow. Did it create the note I have indicated the overblow will create? If not, you are not overblowing.
chromaticblues 1559 posts Apr 11, 2014 9:46 AM	@ Michael No I'm not confused about what an overblow is. I may very well be wrong about Stevie Wonder. As I said I can't remember if it was a lick he did or an idea I got from listening to him! Honestly I'm not a big fan of the tonality of overblows on the diatonic, but on the chromatic it seems to be more natural sounding in the middle part of the harp. The highend sounds like nails on a chalkboard and the lowend is difficult to sustain (as in I can't). Right now I'm playing modified 260's and can only do it on holes 5 through 7. I do it more for effect then trying to play that note. @ tmf714 Yeah I agree with one and two. I think it is necessary to have a very good air tight chrom to start with. I guess I should have started there. Three I know nothing about. I don't study his music so I don't know. I do agree he is a very very talented player. I'm a lip purser that learned to tongue block. So it's cool to hear someone that can tongue switch the way he does some of his riffs.
WinslowYerxa 553 posts Apr 11, 2014 10:11 AM	Stevie Wonder has never played an overblow on a chromatic harmonica. I've studied his work in detail and transcribed many of his solos. Anyone who says overblows are easy on a standard chromatic harmonica simply does not know what they are talking about. It's physically impossible for the reasons I've already stated - the reed that plays the overblow is shut out of the airstream. Whatever you're talking about is something else. Chromaticblues (or tmf if you're inclined, since you claim it's possible), why don't you measure the holes, breaths, slide positions, and pitches involved, report back here, and Michael and I can easily tell you what the correct name is for what you're doing. ---------- Winslow Find out about the 2014 Spring Harmonica Collective! SPONSORED BY Find out about the 2014 Spring Harmonica Collective! SPONSORED BY Lone Wolf Blues Company Rockin’ Ron’s Music For Less BlowsMeAway Productions Slim’s Custom Cases HarpGear Seydel & Soehne
tmf714 2500 posts Apr 11, 2014 11:56 AM	@Winslow-you will have to ask Dennis yourself-I am merely a mortal earthling relaying a message from the man himself-are you afraid to approach him>? If so,I will call him and post the text here.

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