dick, you know more than i do already! but i use a circle of 5ths which helps. i keep a C and a G baritone chromatics in my case and use them a lot in D and A respectively.
the first chromatic i got any use out of was a hohner chrometta 8. since i didn't know anything about 3rd position at the time, i figured out where my 2nd position notes were and used it like that. when i made the break into 3rd i quickly realized i needed more octaves. i use 12-hole chros at this point, and when i can afford a new one i'll look at 16 holers.
btw-i CAN play a lot of different genres, and sometimes do. depending on who i sit in with i will do country, folk, gospel, funk, disco, jazz, rock, etc etc. but my first passion is and always has been blues. the beauty of a chromatic for a guy like me is, i can pick a position depending on my knowledge of available notes, and use the same harp for at least 3 different key songs.
there are 12 positions, i am at the first 3 still. plenty of things to learn yet!
please excuse my ignorance, I have played blues on a vamper,Playing cross harp. can you tell me third position on on a chromatic. a [c] chromatic for example, it must be something other than dminor,is it using the blues scale a c d eflat e g a. against a twelvebar in a major and its subdominant and tonic .changing the scale for every chord. i guess you could do this against c major blues too as you then have root c ,d 2nd or 9 E FLAT the flattened third, e the third ,the fifthG, Athe sixth, someone told me this was called the Bluegrass scale although its the blues scale jumbled up. surprisingly i once tried it against a d major chord and it sounded alright. a c d eflat e g a. d is root, e flat flattened 9. e is 9. g is sus4, a is fifth c is flattened7.Dick Miles
jump/swing blues and chromatic are a match made in heaven in my book. no, bending past a point will cost you. a reed plate set is expensive usually. but any way to add nuance without abusing reeds is a plus for blues playing. i've heard a few delta area guys flat git it on chromatic. let alone little walter, carey bell, and james cotton. william clarke.
third position seems to me to have been made for blues playing on a chromatic.
