Relative difficulty of playing chromatic harmonica

[Ed McCullough]

How can you compare the difficulty of playing chromatic harmonica to the difficulty of playing other instruments?
-. The topic of control and mechanical playing needs to be separated from musicianship.
-. I've spent more time playing chromatic harmonica than I spent in playing French horn. The two instruments require different physical manipulations. I really can't tell you which is more difficult, but I suspect it is the French horn, because the player cannot manufacture and remanufacture lips as harmonica players manufacture valves and everything that is made of metal.

[Gnarly He Man]

My two cents--
I play guitar, I have for 60 years, and although there are challenges to getting comfortable on it, I think it's easier than chromatic harmonica.
1. You can see what you are doing.
2. You can find the same note in multiple places.
3. Electric guitar is easier to amplify, chrom is tough to get loud.
4. There are more players, so it's easier to find help.
I think keyboard are even easier, for all the above except for 2--only one address for each note. But you can use two hands to do two things!

[servus]

If you ask me: every instrument is diffiult - but each in their own way. I've played flute for years but will never master it. Coordinating eyes, eyes, lips and hands is a fulltime job. I also play mandolin - usually, as they say "noodling around" on it. I've made all kinds of discoveries but I'm still a ways away from mastery. Most of my chords are invented by me, ditto double stops. It's easy to do a bit of faking on a chromatic harmonica, but when you really try to play it, you're faced by many daunting challenges. Not only is it near impossible to know where you are unless you have perfect or relative perfect pitch. Lips and tongues have no eyes nor fingers. This finnicky instrument also demands lots of maintenance. I'm sure it too can become a fulltime job if you really start getting into it.

                                      PJ

[Age]

If you ask me: every instrument is diffiult - yada yada yada yada  . . . .  This finnicky instrument also demands lots of maintenance. I'm sure it too can become a fulltime job if you really start getting into it.

                                      PJ

Yeah, but is it still a lotta fun or what?

[Gnarly He Man]

If you ask me: every instrument is diffiult - yada yada yada yada  . . . .  This finnicky instrument also demands lots of maintenance. I'm sure it too can become a fulltime job if you really start getting into it.

                                      PJ

Yeah, but is it still a lotta fun or what?

Well . . .
Ask the kids.
Lots of young people are making music without mastering an instrument.
I bet they are having just as much fun as we are.

I'm going thru my folder of sequences (I am all caught up on chrom repairs) and just got to Bodhisattva (going alphabatically and 1,000 files left to tart up), and realized I couldn't tell you where the tonality goes after the first 8 bars of the chorus--which are the classic blues cadence.
So off to the Internet I go, and found that info pretty quickly.
What does this have to do with the difficulty of playing the chrom? Turns out, it's a great tune for this instrument--in the key of G, and the progression I sought goes
| Ebmaj7 | A7#5 | Dm | F6 | Eb | F |.
Easy enough to navigate, try it!

[servus]

@Age  Yeah, sure it's a lotta fun - mainly because I make a point of playing by ear and only looking at sheet music when I need some help orienting myself. Next stop: playing in some key or two that isn't C. And then, who knows...back up tracks? At the moment my only back up is stomping my foot.

@Gary  Playing chords?...on Chr, Harm?  How does that go? I know how chords are built etc., but the chord sequences - except for 1,4,5 and 2,5,1 and 6,2,5,1 are still extraterrestrial for me. Even the sequences I do know are more theory than practice in my head...but...on the Chr. Harm...?

                   PJ

[Gnarly He Man]

@Gary  Playing chords?...on Chr, Harm?  How does that go? I know how chords are built etc., but the chord sequences - except for 1,4,5 and 2,5,1 and 6,2,5,1 are still extraterrestrial for me. Even the sequences I do know are more theory than practice in my head...but...on the Chr. Harm...?

                   PJ

Not playing chords, but navigating the changes.

[servus]

Aha. Gotcha. Live and learn.

[Gnarly He Man]

There ARE chord harmonicas--here's one I play, sometimes. It's the SSCH-56 by Suzuki.
It was challenging at first, but I studied it quite a bit, even wrote a handbook and gave a seminar at SPAH.
I don't practice it, but it comes back to me if I play it a little bit.
https://youtu.be/2ra3wySjhGc?si=EwzEUCVPgkDxE_iE
San Francisco Bay Blues, I loop the chords and play a solo.
Video courtesy of Abe Thomas.
Man, is NAMM noisy.

[Age]

That is actually quite intriguing!🤔

(nice job too. )

[servus]

I'm impressed - also by the riff on the Meisterklasse. You can play major, minor and diminished (did you also say 7th?)? Wow. I was fiddling with the chords you mentioned a few messages back. Finding them is hunt and peck for me. Looking for them on the flute or mandolin would have taken me no time. Then again, I'm just a part-time chromist.

                                PJ

[Age]

"Then again, I'm just a part-time chromist."

Maybe, but I hear ya every week and you're doing fine, bro!

[servus]

Thanks, now I'm blushing...

[Gnarly He Man]

I'm just a part-time chromist.

Same here, I don't apply myself the way you need to if you want to keep from embarrassing yourself.
Not that I have a problem with that . . .

[nadlerus]

Ask yourself- Why do so few play chromatic.
Not cost
Not size
Not availibility - but
because it is much harder than piano/guitar/flute
my opinion - Neil

[Age]

I agree with Neil. I'm just finishing up on an article on the subject for the main site.
(going along with some changes in the works for SlideMeister.com in general)

[servus]

Yep, I agree, Neil. It's a tough one for sure. I wouldn't say that it is harder than piano, guitar or flute. Each is hard - or harder - in its own way.

                          PJ

[brorat]

As a kid, I took piano lessons for several years.  It helped my ability to understand written music, but I can't play the instrument beyond chopsticks.
I bought a nice acoustic guitar 50 years ago.  Learned to strum a few things, but never was able to become proficient.  Gave the guitar to my grand daughter a few years ago.
I've sung in church choirs for most of my life.  That has helped me more than piano lessons in "reading" music, but I can't "read" well enough to play any instrument except by ear.
Five years ago I bought a chromatic harmonica (first of many, it turns out!).  Within a few days I was playing melodies by ear in the key of C.  Today, I still play by ear, and in several other keys.  I feel I'm relatively proficient with my harmonica playing ... to the point that I play gigs for groups and don't get "booed"! 
So ... for me at least ... the harmonica has been much easier than guitar or piano.

[Age]

Yeah, I'm playing for our annual Church Right to Life benefit (for about the twenty-fifth time) this Sunday. This time, however, I'm gunna be playing around the new teeth 😬 I'm getting in a couple hours, (unless they put me off again ) A preacher buddy of mine, who heads up Ohio Right to Life, has been talkin' me up on his radio show like he does every year, so I'd better get some actual "practice time" in before then.
Don't screw it up, Age!

[brorat]

Yeah, I'm playing for our annual Church Right to Life benefit (for about the twenty-fifth time) this Sunday. This time, however, I'm gunna be playing around the new teeth 😬 I'm getting in a couple hours, (unless they put me off again ) A preacher buddy of mine, who heads up Ohio Right to Life, has been talkin' me up on his radio show like he does every year, so I'd better get some actual "practice time" in before then.
Don't screw it up, Age!

You'll do your usual great job!  I know it's Christmastime and not Easter, but if you throw in your version of "The Old Rugged Cross", you can't go wrong!  Good luck!

[Age]

Yeah, I'm playing for our annual Church Right to Life benefit (for about the twenty-fifth time) this Sunday. This time, however, I'm gunna be playing around the new teeth 😬 I'm getting in a couple hours, (unless they put me off again ) A preacher buddy of mine, who heads up Ohio Right to Life, has been talkin' me up on his radio show like he does every year, so I'd better get some actual "practice time" in before then.
Don't screw it up, Age!

Kaplah!
The concert went great! Lotsa good music! For my part, I managed not to mess up speaking and playing (cautiously ) around my new choppers. "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," "Christmas Time is Here," and "Mary Did You Know." Actually, I learned that last night was the twenty-third year our church did that particular benefit concert. Always a hoot!

[Wendellfiddler]

Ask yourself- Why do so few play chromatic.
Not cost
Not size
Not availibility - but
because it is much harder than piano/guitar/flute
my opinion - Neil

Well, at first try, it's terribly confusing to people who have only played a diatonic.   I was there when I was a teenager - my dad had chromatic.  I tried it and gave up immediately.   30 or 40 years later I was motivated by physical issues that were impacting my work on stringed instruments and put my head into it seriously and it worked out. 

doug tanner

[Age]

I started with a diatonic at 8 years old, and at ten, fell in love with a Chromatic just by seeing one in a store window. Without even knowing anything about it, I just knew with all those holes and a button, my struggle for those missing note was gunna disappear. I was sure it would be much "different" to play, but didn't see where I'd have that much to "unlearn," so the switch was easy. After getting proficient with the Chromatic, I found relatively easy to pick up a suck-harp again and play it as well (or as bad - it's hard to tell ) as the the average blues players at the corner beer joint. (overblows notwithstanding )

[Wendellfiddler]

I thought I was a decent diatonic player, but when I tried recently it seemed to escape me.   I thought (wrongly, apparently) that since I could play the chromatic now, and used to be able to use a diatonic for blues and straight harp that I could jump right back on that pony - but, no, I did not find I could do what I thought I could.  So I guess I would have to practice - and the thought of practicing blues harp just doesn't appeal to me like it used to.   spoiled?

doug tanner

[Ed McCullough]

"Blues" does not interest me get all. Quite a while back I went to some s p a h conventions and also to a couple meetings of a local harmonica Club. In the local harmonica Club somebody who plays Blues on a 10 hole harmonica demonstrated some things he was working on and was proud of. It seemed to me to be just patches of pretty noise. There was my little experience in hearing blues harmonica. I guess I heard it some other places too. It's just not an art form that interests me.

[Gnarly He Man]

Guess I will address this topic on another thread.

[Gene Oh]

Servus said: "Most of my chords are invented by me, ditto double stops. It's easy to do a bit of faking on a chromatic harmonica, but when you really try to play it, you're faced by many daunting challenges. Not only is it near impossible to know where you are unless you have perfect or relative perfect pitch"

Re: "Chords on your Chromatic Harmonica"

My easy solution is:
1. I have two complete sets of 12 keyed Easttop Forerunners ver 2 - all valveless. The keys are in D, Eb, E, F, Gb, G, Ab, A, Bb, B, C, and Db. 
2. I grab a keyed Chromatic harmonica with the same key the song is written in.
3. I play the octave technique ("double stops" - I practise a lot to produce the octave notes)
4. I sometimes add what they call "vamping" to emulate the sound of accordion.

Have a listen to this tune I played recently with the above techniques.

https://youtu.be/kUGlXWKDjgE?si=7DnVv_7e_b9sgime

Gene

[servus]

Super playing Gene Oh.

For me still no easy solution. I hunt around blindly on the harmonica, never quite sure whether I've got to blow or draw - for which reason I practice my party pieces till I have the feeling I - kind of - know where I'm heading. When I refer to "double stops" chords, I mean on the mandolin. A completely different animal than the chromatic harmonica. I navigate on the fret board easily - even when not looking - and if I do miss a note, I quickly slide over as if I've made my mistake on purpose. The vamping technique is useful on the harmonica. Chords by contrast are few and far between. At least there are arpeggios - but that's no different from the flute. having a slew of harmonicas in different keys works for sure. I prefer limiting myself to one instrument.

Oh, and I just noticed: In my text I wrote "faced by". It should be "faced with". That's what happens when I don't proofread. Like drawing instead of blowing.