Legato Tuning Chromatic Modulations

[theharpguysandiego]

Hi, all,

As an OG diatonic harp player, my modulations typically revolved around closely related keys, typically diatonic or with one more or less sharp/flat. And I avoided them in most situations because i knew i could probably just play the pentatonic scale and avoid that extra sharp or flat. This wasn't a problem at blues jams because diatonic is the name of the game in blues for the most part. 

So, modulation was not my forte.

Now that I'm getting more comfortable with the DM48 as a breath controller and distancing myself from the idea of trying to think of the DM48 as a harmonica, and instead think of it as a MIDI breath controller in a harmonica form factor, I recently had a new revelation.

I started trying to up my modulation game. I've been watching YouTube videos from keyboard players because i think that's the best instrument to learn and understand music theory.

Shout out to Michael Keithson

https://youtube.com/@michaelkeithson?si=3-qb-FJuvaZ9uOCm

So, I created an excel spreadsheet of all major and minor keys and the chromatic mediant modulations from each key.

I focused on the harp positions I have committed to.  P1, P5, P6.  I play minor in P1 and P6, and major in P5.

I recently posted a comment that I'm writing original music using my Roland GoKeys5. It's built-in chord progressions were very helpful. I was able to create my own chord progressions and inserted some chromatic mediant modulations from my spreadsheet.

I was very surprised and happy to recognize a pattern with the modulations I preferred.  Note that I configure my DM48 with the arrow buttons playing up or down a semitone, so the buttons were used a lot during chromatic modulations. The pattern wasn't too difficult to play, and I was getting used to it with regular practice.

However, I had a revelation akin to my prior realization that I should maximize leveraging the DM48's strengths to make my playing easier.

My custom Legato Tuning plays the same notes on blows and draws because I use the slide for the notes that would normally be played as draw notes on a harmonica.  This meant that I could switch between blowing and drawing while playing and the instrument plays exactly the same. No breath management issues to worry about while playing.

Well, I have found I'm typically just blowing about 95% of the time. I do a pretty good job managing my breathing as I play because of my experience on the diatonic harp.  So the draw notes weren't really very useful to me.

So my revelation was to configure the draw notes in the key of the chromatic mediant.  That way, all I had to do was draw breath to modulate chromatically. AND the note patterns are exactly the same as I play while blowing to play diatonically.  No new patterns to learn.

This approach can work well because there are 18 custom tuning profiles available on the DM48.

With respect to strategy, these chromatic modulation tunings each target a specific harp position so I name them with the position as part of the name.

For example, the chromatic modulation I've been discussing here is for P5. Numbers are not allowed in names so I use Roman numerals: pvcmbbb

Where pv is position 5

cm is chromatic modulation 

bbb is 3 flats, which only applies to the diatonic blow notes.

So, if the harp is tuned to C with 3 flats, that gives you C minor in 1st position. And P5 gives you Eb / D# major.

The chromatic mediant keys I chose to use were +m3 (up a minor 3rd) and -M3 (down a major 3rd).

+m3 from D# is F#

-M3 from D# is B

B MAJOR

1    2     3      4   5      6      7     8

B   C#   D#   E   F#   G#   A#   B

So, I chose B as my chromatic mediant tonic in P1 since it's major and P1 is usually associated with the major scale, so hole 1 draw plays a B, and the slide plays C#.

F# diatonically in the key signature of B major is F# mixolydian. So I just play that mode if I'm modulating to F#.

So, while drawing breath, P1 plays B major and P2 (which isn't a position I practice on the DM48, but is super common on the diatonic harp, plays mixolydian in F#.

I also tried some diatonic modulations from here, so I played the ii chord of the F# mixolydian scale (G# minor scale) followed by the v chord of the F# (C# Dorian scale) before resolving back to the original key in P5 (Eb major). I didn't resolve to the F#, which would be more typical, but I think it sounded great and it got me back to my original key.

This is working really well.

I'll post a YouTube video about this pretty soon.

S...

Sent from my Galaxy