Eb on a C chromatic - 3rd or 10th position?
When you take a C chromatic and play it using the big D minor draw chord as your home chord, you're in third position - playing in D on a C chromatic.
When you play that same chromatic in Eb, some players argue that you're still playing in third, just "with the button in." If you point out on the circle of fifths that Eb on a C is not 3rd, but 10th position, they may reply with something like "Yeah, but a chromatic is just two harps, a C and a C#, so you're just switching to the C# harp and playing *that* one in 3rd.
Now, many modern chromatics can't be neatly separated into two different harps. The C and C# reeds are both distributed between both reedplates - only the pattern of holes on the slide make it *seem* like there are two separate harps.
But let's look at it musically. Try using the slide to play a D major scale on that harp, and then an Eb major scale. They're totally different patterns. Once you put the button into play and use the breathing patterns that play those scales, it becomes clear that 10th position is way more than just playing in third "with the button in." Sure, you can do the button-in thing, and make some magnificent sounds, but the possibilites go much farther if you put the slide into active play.Linked below is a tune I recorded in 2020, in Eb on a C chromatic. It's called Dauphine, and it's a tribute to New Orleans, named after one of its streets. You can hear a characteristic New Orleans riff playing in one of the guitar parts, and the chord progression owes more to Same Cooke or Otis Redding than to 12-bar blues (though it does have that lowered blue third on the IV chord).
You can hear how by using the slide to create more than the basic Dorian scale, 10th position on chromatic really opens up in different ways than if you just held the slide in.
Thanks, Rob.
If you listen to the first Dauphine recording (played ona Low F datonic wth Draw 5 raised),
https://youtu.be/aa2FOSv5GlQ?si=wjrdV3cOXKbuT7_V you'll hear more extensive quoting from "Do You Know What It Means."
Winslow:
First, Happy New Year! Hope it brings lots of great music.
A really good demonstration of why 10th position on C chromatic isn't just playing the dorian scale with the button in can be found in Little Walter's work behind Muddy Waters on the Willie Dixon tune "Don't Go No Further," and Mark Hummel backing up Johnny Dyer in a more recent version of the same tune. The chromatic runs both Walter an Hummel play have a very distinct sound, regardless of key.
"The Other Dauphine" is great. Thanks! A very nice take on "Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans," a tune I've played (on plectrum banjo) with trad jazz groups. Always thought that the tune went way back to New Orleans, but listening to your "The Other Dauphine" recording sent me off to do some research, where I learned that it wasn't written until 1947, and then by a guy from Queens (Eddie DeLange) and a guy from Massachusetts (Louis Alter), for the movie "New Orleans," in which it was performed by Louis Armstrong and Billie Holiday.