One of the projects that I’m working on this year is to learn to play the chromatic harmonica in all 12 keys . I am doing this as my focus for learning music theory, specifically jazz music theory.

 

I came to this commitment by a long winding road with many detours over the years. I have always been drawn to the place where blues meets jazz. Jump blues, soul music, Ray Charles, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong. I just never believed that I could understand or get good at understanding or playing more sophisticated music.

 

My identity was as a folk musician. I started out on Sonny Terry, Bob Dylan, Woodie Guthrie, Hank Williams. Good sturdy American music. As a guitar player, I knew major, minor, and seventh chords, and a few of the other “fancy” chords.

 

My attempts at going beyond basic blues on the harmonica and guitar always seemed to run out of gas at a certain point. Like trying to understand diminished chords and scales.

 

The idea of going back to school to learn music theory seemed too overwhelming.

 

What I lacked was confidence and a good plan.

 

That has changed. I now have a path for learning jazz music theory that I can understand and work at that I know will pay off.

 

First I had to ditch the identity of “folk musician”. My new identity is “musician”. This gives me room to breathe, room to grow.

 

The next step was to cut the goal down to a size that did not make me want to give up. This is the beginning of a three step process:

 

1. Figure out what you want
2. Find out the price you have to pay
3. Start paying the price…

 

I took a skype music lesson with Filip Jers – Filip is a wonderful and soulful harmonica player who plays diatonic and chromatic harmonica and studied music theory in Stockholm, Sweden. I met him at a SPAH convention a couple of years ago and we had a great jam in one of the stairwells at the hotel.

 

Filip created his own music major focusing on the chromatic harmonica. For example, he sat in on saxophone classes and played the exercises on the chromatic harmonica.

 

I talked to Filip about my ambition to learn jazz music theory and he was encouraging and clear about the process. He said that jazz is a language that anyone can learn. He gave me a clear path for learning the language of jazz on the chromatic harmonica.

 

The reason I want to learn jazz music theory is that it will give me a better understanding of all of the kinds of music I want to play. I play American Roots music – the melting pot that includes fiddle tunes, blues, and popular music from the American songbook. I have been told that if you can play jazz, you can play anything.

 

If you want to understand music of any kind, you need to be able to hear, sing and play musical ideas – riffs, scales, chords, etc. If your main instrument does not let you play all the chords, then you need to have an instrument that you can play chords on.

 

The piano is the most practical instrument for this purpose. I have an inexpensive Yamaha keyboard that I have put stickers on that tell me the notes of the keys. If I want to know what a particular chord sounds like, I can find the notes on the piano and play them faster than I can find the notes on a guitar.

 

I also play chords on the guitar, but finding the notes of chords on the guitar takes me longer than finding the notes on the piano. The piano is also super visual. I can see ideas on the piano that I can’t see by staring at my fingers on a guitar neck.

 

You don’t have to master the piano or guitar.  But if you get familiar enough with these instruments that you can work things out and find the notes you are looking for, they are great tools for understanding music.

 

I picked the chromatic harmonica for playing scales, arpeggios, and songs in general. I like the sound of the harmonica, and the chromatic has a sound that I can get into. It is different than the diatonic harmonica, but still has a lot in common with it.

 

I did build myself a custom chromatic harmonica for this project. It is an old pre war Hohner 280 16 hole chromatic that I cut down to a 12 hole 270 custom comb. I did this to get the lower three octaves with the extra long reeds. I love these low notes. They sound smokier and more like a horn to me. The smaller size is easier to work with and carry around.

 

I’ve tried playing in all twelve keys on the diatonic harmonica and I don’t like the sound of the instrument in keys with a lot of over blows or over draws. The diatonic harmonica also gets insanely complicated when you follow this path. You have three octaves with different note / breathing patterns. The chromatic harmonica has the same note layout in all octaves.

 

Michael Peloquin (a great west coast arranger, harp player and sax player) told me that the diatonic harmonica is a lot harder to master than a saxophone when it comes to playing jazz standards. I believe him. He also plays chromatic harmonica for this reason.

 

I could play the scales on a guitar or piano, but I don’t really want to be a lead guitar or piano player. I can imagine becoming competent at playing the chromatic harmonica, however.

 

The chromatic harmonica will give me a new voice that uses the strengths I have already developed as a diatonic harmonica player. The two instruments complement each other in many ways.

 

When you play the chromatic harmonica, it makes some things (like playing octaves) easier on the diatonic. When you develop your lung capacities by doing train rhythm breathing exercises on the diatonic, you strengthen your ability to breathe through the chromatic harmonica.

 

Filip told me it took him three years to master the scales and arpeggios that give him the language of jazz. He started with the major scales, then the melodic minor scales, then two diminished scales. He can play interval patterns and arpeggios in all of these scales.

 

You take two or three scales and practice them till you can play seconds, thirds, fourths, fifths, sixths, and sevenths as well as other patterns including chord arpeggios.

 

I’ve been practicing the C, F and Bb scales now for about a month. I set a timer and practice for 21 minutes. Mix it up, play scales then patterns.

 

What I have discovered is that this daily practice plants seeds. I find myself stealing minutes here and there during the rest of the day to play more scales, see if I can go up and down one of the scales without screwing up. I am also playing more harmonica in general for fun.

 

I’m also curious to see how playing the patterns on the diatonic harmonica will improve me on that instrument.

 

This project is an interesting combination of long term and short term thinking. I’m excited about what I will be able to do if I keep paying my dues. I can also hear and feel a difference from a single months practice.

 

One of the other things that set the stage for this new adventure is that I have been doing a daily meditation practice  for a while now – the same timer I use for music practice is the one I use for a simple sitting meditation – bring my attention back to my breath, sit up straight. I use the word “om” as my mantra or tool of the mind.

 

I think the meditation practice gave me a new kind of patience and focus that made music practice seem like something I could do without giving up.

 

I’ll post more as I continue down this path. If you have any thoughts, please post a comment.

 

Thanks!