Typical training session for chromatics

By halving do you mean half-valving? (You probably don't mean cutting the chromatic in half :))

Half-valving does make some of the draw bends sound much bluesier. But it takes away half of the bends on the chromatic - with valves, all the notes bend. Also, removing valves makes the chromatic leak more air. Some people are OK with this and some aren't.

If you have a supply of replacement vales, you can try removing valves and see how you like it. If you don't, you can glue new valves on - or re-use the ones you removed, if you take care not to damage the valves you remove.

Very little instructional material is out there for jazz chromatic, unfortunately. Recently, however, Wim Dijkgraaf has started a blog for jazz chromatic called Effortless Harmonica. Wim is an excellent jazz player, and you may find some good information on his site.

What confuses you in the Richard Hunter book? Maybe I can help.

For each practice session, you should definitely do some "just playing."

But stop and think about what that means.

When you "just play" you do what is already easy, which is a combination of
1. What you know how to execute physically
2. What your ear already can hear in advance
3. Accidental discoveries that may sound good or bad, and maybe you can't be sure what you did to create them.

This kind of play helps you find ways to make musical use of the things you've studied. However, it does not develop your muscles or your command of the underlying materials.

Exercises like scales and arpeggios develop both your muscles and your ear. Working on them gives you more things that you can do easily when you start to improvise or play by ear.

One thing I might recommend is that when you learn a scale or other exercise, memorize it. Get away from reading it so that you can listen to it while you play it. As you listen:

1. Memorize the sounds that result from your actions.
2. Think about how to make the actions effortless.
3. Concentrate on making your delivery sound good.

After a few practice sessions working on a new scale or physical ability, start to incorporate it into your free explorations and into your more formal improvisations.

I suspect that the choices of tunes in "Jazz Harp" may have been influenced by the publisher's wish to include tunes that might have been well-known at the time (1980) and more accessible to the average reader than "hard core" jazz.

The audio was originally on a little floppy phonograph record that might have held 10 minutes of music on each side. So there wasn't really room to include much, compared to the cassettes that later came into use, and then, of course CDs and DVDs. You're looking at a legacy product from 30 years ago in that regard.

Phil Duncan does have a book out called "Jazz Harp: For Diatonic and Chromatic Harmonica." I've never looked it over, so I can't really comment on what's in it. Phil is a great teacher for many things, but jazz is not an area where he's explored very deeply. Hmmm. I'll have to check it out.

The best jazz books are not harmonica books. Mark Levine's "The Jazz Theory Book"and "The Jazz Piano Book" are both great for your understanding of jazz harmony and scales. For scales and arpeggios, "Patterns for Jazz" is a widely used book for practicing scales and arpeggios.

Are you asking what scales and arpeggios you should play, or just a general mix for a practice session?

OK, I'd start a practice session with long tones - notes sustained for six or seven seconds, conentrating on easy, deep breathing and getting your sound big and full. Do this in all octaves of your instrument on one or two notes in that octave. Change which notes you focus on each day.

Then you could go to scales. Play all 12 major scales up and down. But don't just start and end on the tonic note of the scale. Play ascending starting on C, then the descending starting on D D, then ascending E, and so on. Then reverse the pattern - Descending C, ascending D, etc.

Next, play each scale around the circle of fifths within that key. For instance, with a C major scale play:

Up C, down F, up B, down E, up A down D, up G, down C.

Then down C, up F, etc.

having the scales in your ears and muscle memory gives you a framework for what follows.

Play patterns on scales, such as 1-3, 2-4, 3-5, etc. Also 1-2-3, 2-3-4, etc. Play the figure both forward and backwards over both ascending and descending scales.

Arpeggios should be played ascending and descending through the entire range of the instrument, starting on each note of the chord. For instance:

1-3-5, 3-5-8, 5-8-10, 8-10-12, etc.

To place arpeggios in the context of a key, play them on each ascending degree of the scale (for instance, C major, then D minor, then E minor, etc.) - and also descending, and then through the diatonic circle of fifths - C major, F major, B diminished, E minor, A minor, D minor, G major, C.

Playing arpeggios in a successions of thirds instead of seconds or fifths gives you the basis for chord extensions.

For instance, if you play a C major triad and then an E minor triad, they add up to a C major 7th.

So you could start by playing C-E-G, E-G-B, G-B-D, B-D-F, D-F-A, F-A-C. At this point you've traversed two octaves. Now inch you way back down.

Do this starting on each scale degree (either proceeding up and down the scale by degrees or around the circle of fifths) and you'll start to develop a strong sense of all the diatonic chord extensions.

The series of exercises I'm describing works for seven note scales, such as major, melodic minor, and harmonic minor, and prepares you to play them through basic chord progressions and also to play their various modes.

Eight note scales, such as the diminished scale and the bebop scales have different treatments, as does the pentatonic scale.