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Various Chromatic Harmonica Playing Techniques
Written for Coast to Coast Music
by
"G"

Corner Switches 
This technique is based on tongue blocking and enables a harmonica player to play across several holes with a minimum of effort and movement. Simply put corner switches are when you are playing from one side of your mouth with a normal tongue block (most people block the left notes with their tongue and play the note farthest to the right) and change to playing from the other side of your mouth. This can be done in several ways:

1. By relaxing your tongue keeping it where it is, and shifting your mouth to the opposite side by one hole letting yourself fall into the opposite tongue block position. 
2. Flicking your tongue into the opposite tongue block position. 
3. Gently moving the harmonica towards the open side of your embouchure, left for left tongue block, right for right tongue block. 
4. Using your hand to push the harmonica over, keeping your mouth where it is, relaxing your tongue and let your embouchure be shifted into the opposite tongue block. 

These will all come into play as you get better at it and start considering their place in each piece of music you play. Assuming you are not improvising while learning all this! When you've practiced this technique long and hard enough, muscle memory & habits will set in making it easier to move around the harp, that is when all the hard hours of practice and effort will begin to reap rewards. 

Octaves 
Playing octaves is when you play two notes that are a full octave apart. Its a rewarding technique and usable in any key and the the note layout of the chromatic is perfect for this technique. Octaves can add punch & richness to the higher register, and definition to the lower register. The only exception to this is the right most draw note with the slide in, as its octave counterpart is only four holes to the left. There are three things to be aware of when learning octaves: 

1. Stretching your mouth over five holes comfortably 
2. Positioning your tongue blocking the three center holes to get one clear clean note from each corner of your mouth. 
3. Keeping everything in the same position when moving around the harmonica. 

Originally I found stretching over 5 holes very difficult to do. I tried pushing the mouthpiece into my mouth deeply, but this left little room for holding the harp, slowed me down and was quite uncomfortable. Eventually I figured that one way to make your mouth stretch is to SMILE, using facial muscles to stretch the mouth wider (gently now!) The more relaxed your lips and jaw are the easier it becomes to do. You may find your teeth clacking on the coverplates to begin with, pull your lips just over the edge of your teeth to cushion them, this improves embouchure seal too. Having got all this, practice maintaining just the right stretch to cover exactly five holes By the way, this is a very rich chord to play. Work to stretch your mouth a little more or relax it a bit as you may be not getting all the holes, or getting too many. Keep this in mind as you work at getting clear octaves. With practice you'll train your body the correct setting to get an octave range. 

Now you have the spread you're ready to work on getting two clean notes an octave apart. The trick was how to place my tongue over the holes I didn't want. With a regular tongue block the tongue is placed to the side of the mouthpiece one way or the other. One technique that works is to use right or left tongue block normally, and then stretch your mouth just a little more on the opposite side to what you're playing. However you can take a different approach by placing the tip of your tongue on the bottom of the the middle hole. Push the front of your tongue against the three holes gently leaving only the two end holes open to play. Be gentle, experiment, practice and relax. 

If you find you are getting a bit of a chord (usually unpleasant) it means you're not properly blocking the middle holes, or your embouchure is too wide, try concentrating your tongue a bit more to the offending side, and/or relax it more so it can spread wider over the holes. 

Moving around the harp with octaves is like learning to play with tongue block all over again: When shifting from hole to hole you want to avoid dragging your lips on the mouthpiece or covers and scraping your tongue along the hole edges. This is part of why you need to maintain a relaxed attitude to your embouchure and keep your tongue relaxed, so that as little effort as possible is required to shift from hole to hole.  A moist mouthpiece allows your tongue and lips slide better along the harp. However this is more difficult than simple tongue block because you also need to maintain your stretch over the five holes and blocking the middle holes properly.  If you find you are getting the wrong notes, stretch your mouth a little more or relax it a bit you may be not getting all the holes, or getting too many. Keeping it all together consistently and on demand can only come from lots of practice. In my opinion this is definitely a worthwhile technique.

Vibrato & Tremolo 
Vibrato is the varying of volume of a note, or reiteration of a note. Tremolo is a regular variation in pitch of a note. (According to Collins English Dictionary.) I know of three techniques other than hand vibrato. Tongue Tremolo, throat vibrato & diaphragm vibrato. The difficulty of developing each technique increases in respective order. 

1.  Tongue Tremolo is really simple to do. When you want to vary a long note go: "OOOOeeeeOOOOeeee". .... rhythmically. 
2. Throat vibrato takes some practice and developing, but its quite doable with a months worth of practice. Start by simple opening your mouth and using the back of your tongue against your throat to say "K'...K'...K'..." like you're about to say "King" OR "Gh...Gh...Gh..." like you're about to say "Goat" OR "'ch...'ch...'ch" as in the "Loch Ness Monster". Whatever works best for you. Try to keep a slow rhythm.  Practice regularly. When you can keep a constant rhythm going for a half minute or so its time to speed to soften it so that the harsher part of the consonant is lost, but without losing the definition of the vibrato. As you keep practicing try to increase your pace. Increase it to a point where you're just about tripping up, and keep at that for a week, and so forth.
3. Diaphragm Vibrato You need to be well on your way developing diaphragm (breath) control before starting on this. Its a lightly controlled "pant pant pant..." using your diaphragm or gut to create the vibrato. This affects the note in a deep tonal way and is desirable for that reason. Like throat vibrato it's a matter of starting slowly and developing a rhythm and practicing to increase your speed and keeping a rhythm while doing so.  Developing this technique can only do wonders for your breath control.

Please Visit G's "HarpOn!" web site for the most comprehensive chromatic site on the web at http://www.angelfire.com/music/HarpOn/

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