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"Thou, My Everlasting Portion" in Keys of G, Ab, A

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Gene Oh:
https://youtu.be/WEzsbRh-hlc?si=-AeSb0snLDQuKxVW

I played and uploaded above hymn to youtube.
Any comments will be appreciated.
Gene from NZ

Age:
Nice number, brother!
Nice clean articulation. Very listenable stuff there.  :)
The only criticism (and this may just be my personal preference ::)) is the tongue-thump "chording" you added to the piece.  That effect works much better with a diatonic because with a Chromatic, the chords are almost the wrong ones.

I especially liked the sound you used in the last verse.


@ge

Gene Oh:
Hi Age,
Thank you very much for your kind comment and valuable advice! I truly respect your knowledge and experience with the Chromatic harp.
I would like to share my approach to the piece I worked on. To add variety, I chose not to repeat the same melody three times. Instead, I edited the backing track to feature Verse 1 in the key of G, Verse 2 in Ab, and Verse 3 in A.
For each verse, I employed different playing techniques:
•   In Verse 1, I used an octave effect by playing two identical notes on a G-keyed harp, one in the low register and one in the high register.
•   For Verse 2, I maintained the G-keyed harp but pressed the slide continuously while incorporating tongue-thumping to create an accordion effect. I don't think it
        will create any "wrong chording" issue as long as I use the same key harp in which the song is written in. Am I correct?
•   In Verse 3, I utilized an A-keyed harp without any additional effects, focusing on a single note technique.
In summary, I played one song across three keys using two chromatic harps and three distinct techniques to enhance variety. About two years ago, I acquired 12 different keyed Chromatic harmonicas (Easttop Forerunner version 2.0) and have been playing them similarly to my tremolo harmonicas, utilizing octave and tongue-thumping techniques that are popular among Asian musicians, including those from China and India.

Thank you once again for your support and encouragement.

With love and respect,
Gene

Age:
Yeah, I still actually liked the A part the best. Ha Ha!

I think it would help you immensely, (because I know it did for me) to play different keys on the same Chromatic. Probably the easiest ones to try would be to play something in G or F on a C Chromatic. Then you'll see how easily you can add E minor (relative minor of G) and D minor (relative minor of F) Playing outside of the tonic key will open up your playing to a whole new level. Every key (position) you add is like another arrow in your musical quiver. I'm embarrassed to admit that it took me fifty years to realize that, (Duh! :-[) but since I did, I'm having so much more fun with this instrument. :)


@ge

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