Which C hole to use in the modern chromatic harmonica?
Let's talk about the standard modern chromatic, tuned to the key of C.
On that instrument,the same C note appears twice at two adjacent holes, both blow notes. The first C hole ends an octave, the second one begins a new octave.
That being the case, when navigating through a piece of music and C has to be played, the player always has to choose which C hole to use. (Unless you're playing the lowest or very highest/last hole -
C.) What are the criteria for choosing which C to play?
I am not a very serious player on the chromatic, but I do fool around with it sometimes. My general rule is that if I get to the end of an octave and intend to continue playing into the next octave, I jump to the second C hole to start the new octave. But if I intend to stay in the same octave and move back down (or just stop playing) I play the first C hole.
Can anyone add to this? Is there something wrong with my method - for example, some inefficiency or error it can lead to?
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I'm not actually really a chromatic player, I'm much more a diatonic player. Having said that, here's the answer: there is no hard and fast rule, it's simply whichever one is more convenient for a given passage. Practically, for the 2 blow notes, it makes very little difference. Obviously, if you're about to play an A or a G then it's easier to play the first C, and if you're about to play an E or an F then it's easier to use the last one, to not have to skip over a hole.
The much more pressing question is whether to use the C on the blow with the slide out, or the C on the draw with the slide in: using the latter can make certain passages much easier, not having to reverse breath direction coming from a quick A for example.
If it seems strange and illogical that most notes on the chromatic harmonica have no enharmonic equivalent, but that C has 3 enharmonics, and 2 of them are right next to each other, that's because it is strange and illogical, but see this question for why that came about B -> C on a chromatic harmonica :
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