My Blues shake flutter
Hi David,
I am struggling with the notation of shake and flutter. In the legend you provided ..it says that the shake note stands alone and the flutter note is tied to another note - thus can the difference between the two. In 'My blues'...measure 3 of the first chorus.... contains a flutter (but there is no note tied to it), and it is notated the same as the shake in measure 7 ( you have provided a footnote as to what technique is to be used). Then I get down to the 2nd chorus.. and in measures 7 and 8 the is a shake or flutter ? ( I will go through the videos to figure it out), do you have any suggestions on how I can tell a shake from a flutter based on the music as it is currently written ?
Thank you for your time
Steve
Hello Steve,
When the three slashes are notated above/below a note head where there are two notes present, you are to shake between the two notes.
When the three slashes are notated above/below a note head where there is only one note present, you are to use the flutter technique.
Years after I came up with this notation (there was no precedence before my notation, so I had to come up with a system) I became aware of the fact that you could flutter two notes at the same time! This messed up my notation system, and thus your confusion right now. Because of this, if there are two notes present and you're to flutter instead of shake, I tell you in text form.
Sorry for the confusion, it was just the evolution of the notation system for blues harmonica.