Is this a blues question? I don't know, but I thought I'd ask it here.
Stevie Wonder's track Do I Do from Original Musiquarium has a chromatic harp solo. I'm trying to figure it out on a C chrom, but I'm beginning to think it's on a G due to the bends in it.
You know that you can bend all the notes on a chromatic right?(except for the top couple holes because they're ussually not valved) Maybe that's what confusing you.
The bends on a chromatic aren't like bends on a diatonic. The diatonic has double reed bends whereas the chromatic has single reed bends. So since the chromatic harmonica has valves you can bend both the blow and draw notes.
Last Edited by on Jul 01, 2010 10:06 PM
Ha! The instant I read "Check out that trumpet player's cheeks" I was thinking I'd post a video of Dizzy Gillespie and say, "Oh, yeah? Check this out!"
Yes, you're right in the fact that you can bend pretty much everything on a chrom, but the best way to describe what I mean is by comparing say a 5 draw or a 6 draw on a diatonic. As harp players, we can 'hear' those notes irrespective of key and we know that the 6 draw can really be leant on in the bends. Conversely, a 5 draw has a pretty weak sound and doesn't bend well.
The chrom has certain 'weak' notes and this is where I'm finding the problem. In the first passage of the solo (after the initial flurry of notes with the button) you have 3 notes Bb, B and C#. The C# seems weak when I do it. This may be my technique, but I've learnt harder Stevie pieces, which is making me think I'm using the wrong key of harp.
