No offence, but what do you think someone who plays another instrument than diatonic harmonica or someone who does not play music at all would think about that performance?
You might want to post some music. An attempt to play a chromatic scale is only a scale not music. If you want to play music with a chromatic scale play Flight of the Bumble Bee. ---------- Emile "Diggs" D'Amico a Legend In His Own Mind How you doin'
The bottom 2 octaves sound pretty good, but the top octave needs some work. You need to work on controlling your blow bends better. practice doing them with as little breath force as you can, and really trying to focus on the sound of each note as you do it. Stay relaxed up there too!
Well done sir! It's a total buzz to be able to get a chromatic scale out of a diatonic. I've been working on it myself for two reasons. One, it's good excercise and two, because when I meet 'that guy' who says that it isn't possible to play chromatically on a diatonic harmonica, I can demonstrate that it is.
OK, not the most entertaining YouTube vid, but you've posted up for demonstration purposes. Cool!
I don't know what's with the rather humourless responses you got for this. Obviously it's a scale and not music, and you have posted great music, only a couple of days ago in fact - the Steve Baker piece. I can tell you're pleased to have achieved this (it's beyond me at the moment), and well done!
This is my 5 cent, and again just a personal opinion. Music is NOT just about expression (especially on diatonic harmonica). It is a hard labour as well as all the arty stuff. That's why I personally think that exercises such as chromatic scale or any other scale for taht matter are very important. And if someone can demonstrate technical ability to play those scales it is great. Mishka, ne obrashay vnimaniya na zavistnikov, molodets eshe raz.
Hmmm, I don't agree with you leonid. Doing that exercise is good to understand the layout of the harp and know where all the notes are, but it should not be a goal to be able to do this... Other than that I would not see any use for it. I personally think it should not be a goal to be able to do this as good as possible. Time and hard labour is better invested in other stuff... But, that's my 5 cents.
PS: Leonid, I did not say this because I would be jealous or whatever. My reasons are what I say above.
Micha ________________________ Well I technics overdraw study while 5 days , I do not think that a lot of time have lost, and other material I learn together. It turns out what to be able to play chromatic in diatonic not so cool?
I think it's cool. I'm working on being able to play full chromatically too. I've gotten the bottom octave (except for the 1OB) and the middle octave, and on some harps I can get the 7OD, but my blow bends and OD's past that point are sloppy and need more practice.
I really don't understand why people think learning the scales all the way (including chromatic) aren't important. It's elementary to just about every other instrument is it not? I've learned 3 instruments, before harp, and the first thing the teacher taught me was usually the C Maj scale. Eventually, after I got that, and a couple other scales down, the chromatic scale would come into play.
Alls I'm sayin' is, if you're a straight ahead traditional blues guy who has no interest in playing chromatically, then I can see where you think time would be better spent. But for those of us who have interests in multiple kinds of music, I think this skill is essential. If you ask me, NOT having all of the notes available to you limits the amount of things you can say musically.
Keep it up Russian, and just for constructive criticism's sake, I noticed some of your OB's were a little out of tune. I think most of them were a little sharp. I could be wrong, but that's what I heard. Maybe I'm just used to them flat :-\
Last Edited by on Feb 21, 2011 11:55 PM
Micha, you are right that if you just heard this played in isolation and with no context then it would not seem like a big deal to play these scales. But as RB points out he has been playing three years and has just mastered these. I have been playing around 7-8 years and I still can't do overblows. Also I have heard Leo play many times and he can play like Jason, honestly. If he told me that these exercises are a good thing to practice and and I could play like him if if did then I would listen.
I think the other responses here recognise how difficult it is to get these scales right and I think that was them reason RB posted. He's achieved something that has taken a lot of hard work and he's rightly proud of what he's achieved. I think he still knows he got more work to do but it's a great start. ---------- Oisin
Thanks Oisin, I am still not Jason yet. Speed is there but timing is not. Anyway, let me guys elaborate why I think straight chrom scales are important. - You need to know note layout, which note is semitone up/down. If you improvise and played a bum note the good one is always semitone away :) And you need to do it whithout thinking. There is no other way but drill chromatic scale till yo are blue in the face. - For expression sake it is realy nice to be able connect notes via chromatic runs - Many Jazz musician use chromatic scale in improvisation (Toots is a good example) Why? Because it is the same in any key :) - Building technique.
Leonid, as I said: it definitely helps to learn the note layout, I agree with you.
But for scales, I think it's best to start with scales which have less notes as it is easier to start improvising with it. Chromatic targeting of chord notes can be interesting... But I'm not at that level yet.
Anyway, it's all means to the same end.
Leonid, did you get to Jason's speed the same way he did? Just practicing scales over and over again until you can do them at lightning fast speeds?
No man, in terms of speed and overall practice I would say there are 4 things you need to pay attention to: -Diaphragm breathing quick draw/blow. -Scale Patterns, for example in C major CDE DEF EFG etc -General patterns, take a lick and spped it up. -Articulation, getting clear distinct notes at speed. Bends on 2nd and 3rd holes are paramount. One of my favourite exersises is Caprice 24. I recorded a video a while back http://www.youtube.com/user/DocHarp?feature=mhum#p/a/u/0/e9BJYIsklQI It clicks all the boxes at once IMHO
Last Edited by on Feb 22, 2011 4:28 AM
Saying that you shouldn't play a diatonic chromatically is like saying you can't play funk on diatonic because that's not what it was made for. It's only for blues, right? Is that what you are saying?
A number of GREAT diatonic players strive to play chromatically. Good for you man. Buddha would be proud.
