Walzer style - tips
I'm still a beginner but I've set a personal goal of playing La Mula de Parenzo in the harmonica. I can kind of follow the linked tabs already, but I found this awesome performance by Christian Labrecque and would like to better understand his technique: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83j7vSUx8Hk
Any pointers on how he gave a walzer style to it instead of playing just single notes? What's that technique called and is it covered by any of the lectures? Is that something that can be expressed in the harmonica tabs notation? In my opinion, what makes it cool is that it doesn't need any other accompaniment.
Thanks David, those were very nice and precise instructions. I didn't quite master the tongue blocking technique yet, but I'll keep practicing.
The reference to "old-time harmonica" led me to this channel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxPa16LR6EA and to this forum https://folkharmonica.freeforums.net. Leaving the links here in case anyone else is interested.
My pleasure. Dig into those first tongue blocking lessons (1 through 4 would be good in your case), they'll give you the basis of technique to pay any style that you wish.
Hello gianlucar.
This is old-time harmonica playing. This is a neat, and luckily easy, technique on the harmonica.
You'll learn something close to it in Tongue Block Study 2, called the lift (which is a chord, played by simply taking your tongue off of the harmonica). Blues uses the technique differently... it's commonly only used on the upbeat (slap on the downbeat and lift on the upbeat)... the combination of the slap and the lift creates the shuffle feel.
The effect he's producing is created by playing a single note for the melody, and instead of holding the note (with the tongue on the harmonica), you take your tongue off and sound the chord, playing the rhythm commonly with your throat.
You can try this easily with a waltz rhythm. The waltz is a three-note figure. Play a single note (tongue on the harmonica) and then take your tongue off of the harmonica for the other two beats (using your throat... the same muscle as the tremolo... to articulate the separate beats). Give it a try. This rhythmic idea can be used in place of any longer-held note.