Sounding chords for 3rd position
Hi, just want to run something by you. The very first note of the song "It's Right" (3rd Po Ex5) is a big tongue flutter on 4, which is the root note (with 5 added).
When I learned how to do tongue flutter, that was in second position, and of course I noted it sounded good if my mouth was open enough to hear holes 1 to 4 in that chord, and that was root, third, fifth. Even if the song called for the 5 to be added to the 4, I would still make sure the 2 sounded, for the full I7 chord.
In third position, if we invert the chord we are playing, D F G B, its root, flat third, fourth, sixth. But does that really set the right tone to the listener or does it just sound we started playing in the wrong key?? Since we essentially kicked off the song with a G7, when the song is in D. Or maybe its a case of playing 1-4, we get the D octave in there that reinforces it as the tonic?
My question is really, whether or not this is stuff that you need to think about when playing third position, or do you just throw caution to the wind and tongue slap every note regardless? I've been trying to decide if I like playing 1-5, 2-5, or just 3-5 for It's Right. My ear isn't good enough to decide what you have done. :)
Hello Jeremy. You hit it dead-on in your second post. Yes, my mouth is over holes 1 through 4, plus the addition of a little bit of hole 5. Your default embouchure is to have your mouth over four holes, blocking the three to the left, and yes, using a little bit more of the top of the tongue (and harmonica slightly further in) is what I do. I also like to tilt the face of the harmonica slightly downwards, so I can use the matching angle of my harmonica to my tongue to my advantage.
The chord is another subject. The chords do sound better when playing in 3rd position when playing holes 4 through 10 (where you get a minor chord with a major 6th... this chord is what sounds so cool on the diatonic and chromatic harmonicas in 3rd). Holes 4 downward are not as optimal, but not so much so to stop us from using slaps, pulls and flutters... the coolness of those techniques outweigh their possible chordal-incorectnes.
Hmm, after more experimenting, I think you're playing 1-5, and the reason I wasn't happy with mine was that I was tending to play only 2-5 even when I thought I was doing 1-5.
I think the challenge is using the wide part of the tongue to cover all these holes while still being able to get that 4 bend. To use the widest part of my tongue on the face of the harmonica means that the harmonica needed to move a little further back along my tongue. And so the point where I activate the 4 bend will also have moved backwards (relative to my tongue). Probably this is what I should have been doing all along...