Diatonic to Chromatic tabs
Winslow Hi.
I have been asked to play a song titled Dirty Old Town as sung by The Pouges. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s11BuatTuXk
It’s a very catchy and easy to play celtic tune. However the issue I have with it is to play all choruses it is played in three differnt keys. The song starts with an introduction of 12 bars in D then changes for two choruses in G and then a chorus on C and then back to G. Now given the timing of the tune to achieve this I need to miss out section to make distonic harp changes.
Given that the keys are D, G, and C I would have thought that I could play the whole song on a C chromatic. Playing third position for the D key , second position for the G key and straight for the C key.
With the tune so ingrained in my head/muscle memory I am unable to play it on the chromatic using my ear. I do have the music score and have tabbed it to the diatonic harps but am lost as to achieve the same with the chromatic given the position changes.
Is there a formula that I can use to easily establish the tabs for the chromatic? Would it simply be five whole steps to G and another five steps to D or more involved.
I would appreciate your advice.
Winslow many thanks. What a great response and thank you for taking the time. The real stumbling block I had was forgetting third position the chromatic is in D minor No wonder I couldn't find the notes. Very helpful many thanks.
Winslow many thanks. What a great response and thank you for taking the time. The real stumbling block I had was forgetting third position the chromatic is in D minor No wonder I couldn't find the notes. Very helpful many thanks.
I am wondering if the easiest thing wouldn't be just reading the music in the key of C directly on a C chromatic? I got a C chromatic first, not understanding that all the courses on harmonica start with the diatonic harmonica. I got a chromatic because being able to read music already, the C chromatic makes such perfect sense (4 holes for each octave) and having all the notes would make playing any melody in any key easy peazy just like on any instrument in the key of C (almost all other instruments).
So, would suggesting to John that he use his chromatic to learn to read music make any sense?
I copied and pasted the pentatonic scales you posted for the chromatic. That's super useful stuff!
Thinking about starting different scales from different holes on the chromatic is a radical way of looking at it for me - more like looking at the harmonica like a piano! That was a useful insight.
So, I thank you both for the question and the answer!
Winslow having played the song now on both chromatic and the three diatonics I much prefer the diatonic. D C G harps all played in first position. It has more of a Celtic feel and works well with the bagpipe backing. As I mentioned it's a beginner tune, the only challenge for beginners is the 3" being the 6th of the chords in the key of C and G, a very nice pitch for the tune. Thank you for the suggestions.
Sometimes switching diatonics just sounds more appropriate for the tune. Glad you're finding your way on this.
You're on the right track in thinking third, second, and first positions on chromatic. But those positions play differently on chromatic because the note layout is different. And the melody is in D major, G major, and C major, so you need to use the slide button to turn D minor into D major in third position. G is already mostly major, and the melody doesn't use the note that needs to be altered with the slide. C is fully major, and is the easiest to translate.
However, your biggest obstacle is that the note layout on th chromatic only partially matches the layout on a C diatonic. You can use that, but it will only carry you so far.
You already know the melody in first position on a D-harp, yeah? So let's use that to play in C on the C chromatic.
Holes 4 thru 7 on a C diatonic match Holes 5 thru 8 on C a chromatic (yes, chromatics are made in other keys, but let's not go down that rabbit hole). If you were dealing with a melody in C that stayed within that area, you'd just add one hole number to the tab and you're good. For instance 4 Blow on a diatonic = 5 Blow on chromatic, and so on. This gives you easy access to a lot of first position melodies that you might already know on diatonic, and even some third position ones.
However, this melody, when you play it in C, also includes G in the first octave. As it turns out, that note is Blow 3 on both instruments - no adding a hole number for that one. But it also means you have to travel farther between that and the C in Blow 5.
To make things even more confusing, on chromatic, both Blow 4 and Blow 5 are the note C. So you have to be sure that you're using Blow 5 (not Blow 4) so that it connects with the familiar pattern in Holes 5-8.
And in Dirty Old Town, the first four notes in C are: G up to C to D to E, so it's important to know that after playing the G in Blow 3, you move *two* holes to the C in Blow 5 (and not Blow 4), so that the C you're playing will turn into D when you stay in that same hole and draw. (If you play the C in Blow 4, and then draw, the note will go down to B, like when you play blow then Draw in Hole 7 of a diatonic).
But what about that melody in D and G?
Well, the good news is that it uses the relatively simple five-note major pentatonic scale. In second position, that works out to be similar to second position on a C-harp IF you were to play it starting on Hole 4 - that stuff going on in Holes 1-3 on diatonic has nothing similar on chromatic. Same is true for third position, but you'll also need the slide for one note.
So what I'm going to give you is the tab for that pentatonic scale in the middle part of the chromatic for D and G. Work with those and you'll be able to find the melody in those keys.
Key to tab: D= Draw, B = Blow, # = slide button pressed in.
>> TIP: to move these patterns to a lower octave, subtract 4 from the hole numbers. To move them to a igher octave, add 4 to the hole numbers.
D pentatonic, home note Draw 5.
3D 4D 5D 6B #6D 7D 8D 9D
Work you way up and down this pattern until you can play it easily, and then find the melody.
G pentatonic, home note Blow 7.
5D 6B 7B 7D 8D 9D 10B 11B
I hope this helps.