4 Hole Dip

Graham:

Is it that the pitch is not changing, or that the reed stalls?

Either one might be technique. Particularly as the CX12 works pretty well in this regard. With respect to stalling, chromatics are really, really touchy, as compared to diatonics, and getting as much as a quarter tone of pitch change is about all one can do (unless you're Mitch Kashmar).

"Easy Baby" is a fun study song, Just re-played it, and indeed, both the dip in the 4-draw and on the 6-7 two-hole draw can be a challenge. Very easy to stall the reeds. Think about just getting a little tiny bit of flatting going into the notes, i.e. a whole lot less than you'd expect doing similar dips on a diatonic, and then experiment from there to see just how far you can go without the reeds fighting back.

And you might copy your question into the "Ask Harmonica Teacher David Barrett" thread here. For certain, he'll have a helpful answer.

I see you posted your question in David's thread, and that he gave you a great answer. As you are learning for yourself, the chromatic is a different instrument entirely from the diatonic. As you note it's a stalling reed situation, it's a technique thing.

Enjoy working on it. As a fellow chromatic player, I encourage you. Find and take a listen to Mitch Kashmar's version of the Little Walter classic, "Crazy Mixed Up World." In his solos Kashmar does some wonderful bends on the 5, 6 and 7 draws. It'll be another 10,000 hours of practice before I can do anything close, but in the meantime I'm enjoying the challenge.

There's just not enough chromatic blues out there. Thanks be for folks like Dennis Gruenling, Mitch Kashmar, Rod Piazza, RJ Mischo, et. al. Welcome to the club.