Blues in E on chromatic - Part 2

PART 2 – neighboring same-breath notes to the home note and the dominant note

In Part 1, you got familiar with playing and hearing the two most important notes in the scale - the tonic or home note (E in the key of E, in Blow 2, 6, and 10) and the dominant note (B in the key of E, Draw 4, 8, and 12.

The next things to explore are the notes in the neighboring holes.

- The blow note on the right side of E

- The draw notes to the right and left of B

Try playing the note E in Blow 2. Now continue to exhale and move one hole to the right, to Blow 3. The note you hear is G. Try moving back and forth between these two notes until you can get each one clearly.

Now try finding and playing the same pair of notes in Blow 6 and 7, and in Blow 10 and 11.

Now try playing along with a backing track that plays a mid-tempo blues in E.

Limit yourself to just playing those two notes, E and G, and nothing else. Go back and forth between them, and concentrate on hanging out with each note individually as you move through the 12-bar progression.
Get the sound in your ears, and the muscle memory of where they are on the harp, and the experience of playing them.

The note to the right, G, is the minor third in the E scale. It’s one of the notes identified as a blue note and sounds good almost anywhere in a blues progression.

What about the blow note to the left of E? For now, let’s treat it as a avoid note, as it doesn’t fit easily with most blues. I’ll take it up in a future installment.

Now, find B, the draw note in Hole 4. Try moving one hole to the right and play D. Try moving back and forth between these two notes.

Now try moving from B in Draw 4 to A in Draw 3. Get familiar with moving back and forth between these two notes.

Put on a blues backing track in E. As you play along, move back and forth between B and D, and between B and A. Note how the B-D combination seems to work everywhere, while the B-A combination works better with the IV chord and V chord than with the I chord.

To extend your reach with this cluster of notes, find B in Draw 8, then move left and right to include A and D.

In Hole 12, you can play the A to the left, but how do you play D if there’s no Hole 13? Just keep inhaling and press in the slide and B will jump up to D – the only place on the chromatic where this happens!

Next time, I’ll show you how to connect these two note clusters - E-G, and A-B-D, into a five-note scale.