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Date: Wed, 3 Jul 2002 11:56:05 -0700 (PDT)
From: Mike Will
Subject: 2nd Pos Low V Arpeggio

Sometimes I feel like guarding little secrets like
this.. probably little general list interest anyway..
but what the heck...

I recently discovered that it's pretty easy to do a
2nd position V chord arpeggio in holes 1-4.

Thinking in the key of C, that's a G arpeggio, notes G
B D G tabbed as -1 -2' -3" -4 (where dash (-) means
draw and each apostrophe (') is a half step bend).

I'm talking about a nice fast smooth arpeggio.. at
least triplet eighths.

To get the feel, start playing the I chord (inversion
G C E G) as -1 -2 -3 -4 by starting on the hole 1 draw
and just sliding the harp so you land on 4 draw at the
start of beat 2. Go back and forth like this

||: (-1 -2 -3) (-4 -3 -2) :||

And/or you can do the IV chord.. i.e. blow notes (+),
like this:

||: (+1 +2 +3) (+4 +3 +2) :||

This is really easy stuff to play.. Basically sliding
back and forth over the first 4 holes, just timing the
sliding so each direction takes 1 beat. Hope the
wordy description doesn't make it seem harder than it
is.

The thing that surprised me was how easy it was to do
the V arpeggio with the same feel, since it has the
half step 2 draw bend and the whole step 3 draw bend
in there. The "trick" is a continuously adjusted
"bend embouchure" that is timed (synchronized) to
coincide with the the proper note (hole).

Hmm.. how to make that more clear. Think about a
smooth dip bend.. say the 2 draw bend, sliding
smoothly up from the deep bend then smoothly back down
again. There you are using a continuously changing
"bend embouchure". You can feel the changes going on
in your mouth; your tongue and throat position, etc.

It's a similar feeling when sliding over the bends in
the -1 -2' -3" -4 2nd position V chord.

The corresponding "practice" tab looks like:
||: (-1 -2' -3") (-4 -3" -2') :||

I found that it was pretty easy to adjust the
embouchure to give me the bends on pitch. Maybe
easier than just hitting and holding one of those
bends, because your ear can easily hear what sounds
right and you get that ear-to-mouth feedback loop
going.

With a more exaggerated embouchure change you can even
get the minor chord (by bending 2 draw a whole step),
though it seems to slow things down a little for me,
at least so far.

My personal technique seems to drag the bend sideways
in my mouth a little.. starting the 1 draw a little
right of center on my lips, and ending on the 4 draw a
little left of center on my lips. The tongue in the
middle controls the bend depth, but the "corner" notes
(i.e. hole 1 and 4) come more from the sides of my
tongue where there's less "pull down" so a small
change gets the natural un-bent note.

It's a little awkward at first.. but heck, it seems
pretty useful to be able to throw that dominant
arpeggio out there over the V chord. Especially if I
can get it about as fast and smooth as a slow guitar
chord strum.

If yer interested but this ain't clear lemme know.

Mike Will

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