[Harp-L] Swish, Swish, trill., etc. Defnining terms



Let me provide some definitions of standard musical terms as well as some harmonica specific ones.

TRILL


A trill is a dissonance created by rapidly alternating two adjaccent notes in the scale, like A and B, which you'll find in Draw 6 and Draw 7 on a diatonic harmonica.

A rapid note alternation is not a trill unless the two notes are dissonant with each other AND are neighboring notes in the scale. In classical trills, you resolve the dissonance at the end of the trill by going to a chord note that either is one of the trill notes or neighbors one of the trill notes. for instance, and A-B- trill might end by going from the A down to a G, while a B-C trill would resolve by going up to the C.


SHAKE OR WARBLE


When you rapidly alternate two notes in adjacent holes that are not dissonant with each other, such as Draw 3 and 4, or Draw 4 and 5, that's a shake or a warble.

Pretty much every neighboring hole combination EXCEPT Draw 6 and Draw7 is consonant and therefore creates a shake or warble.

SPLIT

You play a split by using your tongue to block out one or more holes and play the notes in both corners of your mouth at the same time.


CORNER SWITCH

When you're tongue blocking and you move from one note to another in a melodic line, and you switch between the right corner and left corner of your mouth to move from one melody note to the next, that's a corner switch.

TONGUE SWITCH

A corner switch is a tongue switch because you're shifting your tongue slightly to uncover one corner and cover the other. However, this term is often used to describe a shimmer.

SHIMMER

A shimmer is when you rapidly alternate between two single notes located in the right and left corners of your mouth. Your tongue blocks out all the intervening holes, and makes a small side-to-side move while covering the holes in the middle.

RAKE

You play a rake when you have several holes in your mouth and rake your tongue from side to side in a quick repeated motion to alternately cover and cover all the holes in your mouth in different combinations as your tongue passes over them.

There are more, but this covers what's been discusssed recently in the "swishing" thread.

Winslow


 
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