Chromatic, When to Slap
Hello David,
I hope you are keeping well.
I have started to delve into chromatic harmonica again, after a few years of mostly playing diatonic. I thought I would begin again by starting with lesson one, No Sweat, as a refresher.
You mention in the videos that, as with diatonic, the slap is the default way of playing single notes. In listening to the recording of No Sweat, however, it is difficult to tell when you are slapping and which notes. Also, the PDF does not indicate where to slap.
I guess my question is, are you slapping all the notes, or some of the notes, and if so, which ones would you choose to slap and not slap. Would it be, for instance, notes of longer duration that get slapped? Also, is there a rule of thumb that one could follow when it comes to determining when and when not to slap a note?
Thanks in advance,
Geoff.
Hello David,
Thanks for the great reply. It more or less puts it into better perspective.
I guess these rules would also be applicable to diatonic?
A couple more questions, if I may.
A blow slap on a diatonic would be a C major chord and a draw slap also on a diatonic would be a G7 chord, if I am correct? How would this correspond to a chromatic in the key of C? Would a blow slap be a C major or a C7 chord and a draw slap be a D minor chord?
Thanks, David.
Geoff.
Hello Geoff.
Yeah, generally the same for the diatonic.
"A blow slap on a diatonic would be a C major chord and a draw slap also on a diatonic would be a G7 chord, if I am correct?"
Correct
"How would this correspond to a chromatic in the key of C? Would a blow slap be a C major or a C7 chord and a draw slap be a D minor chord?"
Blow is a C Major Chord (C E G) and draw chord is D Minor (D F A), or even cooler, if you play holes 1 through 4, you get a D Minor Chord (D F A) with a Major 6th (D F A B)... which is a very cool sound. We play the chromatic commonly in D, so that gives us a very hip I Chord for the draw (D F A B).
The chord of the slap is very quick, so the listener doesn't real hear it as a chord in the same way that a guitarist or pianist plays a chord in support of the harmony of the song... it's more of an effect for us.
With this said, if you're playing beyond 5th position on the diatonic, or in keys that have a lot of sharps or flats on the chromatic, the chord of the slaps can sound weird. So, if you stay to the classic positions (1st, 2nd, and 3rd) on both instruments, you don't have to worry about the notes in the chord of the slap.
Thanks, David.
Thanks for the very succinct answers.
I can say that I now have a much better understanding of how and why of the the slap!
Geoff.
I am Geoff, I hope the same for you.
Because No Sweat starts low (hole 1), we don't use slaps there, but by chorus 3, where we're on hole 3, then you'll start using more (when you take your tongue off for the start of the slap... the chord... there's a more noticeable chord).
Generally, slap everything that you can. When you get to eighth notes, those will be more challenging for you, but you'll eventually want to slap those too. You'll stay away from slapping triplets, except for the first note of the triplet.
Eventually it will get down to what you think sounds good. Until you get there, just assume to slap everything you can.