Tip of the Week: Integrating Stevie Wonder and Third Position Styles

You play third position chromatic largely with big draw chords seasoned with various tongue blocking effects – lifts, splits, rakes, and so on, and of course you can play single-note licks and riffs that don’t need the slide.

By contrast, the Stevie Wonder-style slide ornaments I’ve described in the last few tips originate in a mostly single-note style played in first position. But you can easily work them into your single-note lines in third position.

I’ll use text-based tab to describe them:

1B = Hole 1 Blow, 1D = hole 1 Draw

< = slide-in note
/ = slide jab
~ = slide bump.

The natural slide-out scale in third position includes two of the three so-called blue notes, the flat 3 and the flat 7, but doesn’t include the flat 5. Yet you can use the slide to play all three blue notes. Let me walk you through the scale with the flat 5 added and the flat 3 and flat 7 played with the slide:

5D - 6B - 6B< (flat 3) - 7B - 7B< (flat 5) – 7D 8D 8D< (flat 7) 9D

Each of the three blue notes can be played as slide-in notes and approached from below via a slide-out note that is part of the natural scale. This approach from below creates the opportunity to use slide jabs and slide bumps.

Some slide jabs:

/6B< 6B 5D

/7B< 7B /6B< 6B 6D 5D

/8D< 8D 7D /7B< 7B /6B< 6B 5D

Slide bumps:

~8D 7D ~7B 6D ~6B 5D

Play around with these and see what they can do to spice up your third position lines.