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From: BluesGe~ol.com
Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 04:30:46 -0500 (EST)
Subject: Re: Chromatic Positions

Robert Bonfiglio wrote:

>The term "chromatic positions" and my comment on it got the same reaction
>it has elicited since I started teaching chromatic to diatonic players in
>the early 70's. I admit, I threw it out there (on purpose) to see if I
>couldn't stir the waters.

Ah hah! I suspected that you were baiting us all along!

Quite a feat. One post has evoked nearly 100 responses. And here you are
again, to drip some more honey and attract the bees of controversy. (Well, we
have been buzzing while you were gone!)

>I just wanted to see if everyone knew there was
a button out there on the end of the chromatic. It still amazes >me that
people will retune harmonicas in every configuration, learn to bend every
>note in every way to get every chromatic tone and are still afraid to death
>to reach out there and touch that button.
>
>Where is the sense of adventure!

I was one of those early 70s students you mention, so I definitely learned
where the button was. But I find the retuning of harps, both diatonic and
chromatic (one of my chromatic inventions will produce about 250 enharmonic
chords and 3 octaves of chromatic scale on a re-reeded stock 64), as well as
the exploration of bending potentials of the harp, to be at least equally
adventurous to the conventional use of the chro.

Another consideration is the application of the instrument within a
tradition. In classical art, I imagine there are conventions for
interpretation of music that have an impact on the way one approaches the
harmonica. Not being a classical musician, I have scant evidence for the
following example, and please feel free to correct me. It may be that if one
were to play a progressive orchestral or chamber piece composed for the
chromatic harmonica, one would express the music in other than traditional
interpretive means. This is also relevant to applied chromatic harmonica in
blues music. There are traditional approaches to the instrument, in the
repetory, which are almost exclusively Dorian with limited, or no, use of the
trigger. There are also more progressive ways to approach the instrument in
blues, which may involve more substantial use of the trigger. Is it
felicitous to say that adherence to traditional mores is less than sound and
valid, regardless of the genre? In today's world, I think one would be hard
pressed to find a contemporary traditional blues artist, accomplished on the
chromatic harmonica, who does ~not~ know a few turns and tricks of the
trigger (including chromatic scales), performance habits notwithstanding.

It is just a choice that many highly skilled blues players make. Who is to
say wherein lies instrumental music adventure? I find Kim Wilson's masterful
Dorian chromatic work on his "My Blues" CD to be conventional and
traditional, and, at the same time, singular and unordinary.


>...chromatic
>blues in D minor might be really exciting.



>I do agree that if playing in positions helps you get a Dorian mode out of
>the harp, play in positions. I only mean to expand on that to take
>advantage of the chromatic. If you are playing in D minor, button motions
>of A to draw C button in, or the blow F button in to the E make for legato
>phrases. So if you are shaking D to F in triplets, then F to E in the
>same triplets, the blow F to E will be smoother. A good run in D minor
>could be repeated up a half step in Eb minor as the whole band modulates
>and then back to D minor with just the push of the button. Pretty soon
>little chromaticisms start showing up all over the place and you are out of
>Little Walter territory and into your own.

I made a post some time ago (which I have lost) in which I described an
approach to expanding concept, by degrees, away from the trad blues Dorian
approach. The concept is based on the major pentatonic scales found
diatonically on the chromatic harp, and their relative minor values. This
allows the player to begin to explore playing in more keys on the instrument,
without the use of the trigger.

Major pentatonic scales Relative minor values
(1, 2, 3, 5, 6) (1, b3, 4, 5, b7)

trigger out - C, F G A, D, E
trigger in - Db, Gb, Ab Bb, Eb, F

Now we're playing in:
the Major keys of C, Db, F, Gb, G and Ab
the minor keys of D, Eb, E, F, A, and Bb

...all without the use of the trigger, other than to hold it in or release it
for the entire scale.

(If my haste and blurred vision (inner and outer) have resulted in error,
please correct me.)

Now, if the player begins to use the trigger to add the other diatonic scale
degrees and some common chromatic notes (the b5 and natural 7 are very common
in the minor pentatonics, for example), it is only one more small step to
finish the bridge between diatonic and complete chromatic use of the
instrument.

>This brings me a very disconcerting thing that happened to me this weekend
>when I was playing with Santa Barbara Symphony.

Sheesh, when you wrote, "when I was playing," I thought you were going to say
that someone called out, at your concert, for Mustang Sally and peeled off
their clothes!

>I went down to the local
>blues club to play a little and a local harp player was playing in the
>Little Walter style; this was okay until I began to notice that this young
>harp player was playing the solos note for note as Walter did on the
>recordings; I MEAN NOTE FOR NOTE!
>
>Now Little Walter in a Beethoven type classical context was weird to me. I
>mean we all used to learn those licks from the records, but I thought the
>object was to improvise a solo and to have your own style, not be a Little
>Walter clone. Is this where we're headed? I shiver at how retro that
>sounded to me; color definitely does not define blues, but this is as
>"white" as blues gets.

Well, you did say that the player was young. Proficiency in improvisation and
a distinctive voice, very often come after a period of emulation. The night
club venue is not like the concert hall. There are some young harp players,
who can barely do more than blow in and out, who are working the same clubs,
and not for very different money, than veteran adepts (talk about
disconcerting). I wasn't there, but I have probably witnessed similar
performances. I likely wouldn't take that performance as a sign of where we
are headed, but maybe just as a sign of where that young player was headed.
What major contemporary diatonic harpist has not been profoundly influenced
by Little Walter? I would encourage this youngster in his direction, to
Little Walter and beyond, ~whatever~ that beyond may be.

For the accomplished player, there is great value in tribute. Red Garland, on
a Mile's Davis recording of "Billie's Bounce," played a beautifully
harmonized orchestration, on the piano, of Mile's monumental solo from
Charlie Parker's original recording, note for note. The Buddy Morrow
orchestra recorded an arrangement of Little Walter's "Off the Wall," note for
note, big band riding true on his often-emulated improvisations.

That last paragraph wasn't meant as a retort, as it really doesn't apply to
young or novice players. Just trying for a graceful close to a very long
post.

>Thoughts please!

I'm glad to see that we can continue to grow with this thread, in a more
deeply-considered fashion, as time goes on.

- -dave