Shaganappi
61 posts
Dec 03, 2013
8:43 AM
|
Five categories of common harp chords are: two adjacent holes at a time, three adjacent notes at a time, a whisper of the next higher hole, and also tongue splits like the 1-4 draw. And also the warble between two holes is basically a chord of sorts. Note that in all these 5 cases, there is a more dominate note which if substituted still keeps the overall piece as being recognizable.
1. For the two hole CHORD, Beat Tab (BT) uses 3c to represent the dominate 3 hole draw played with the less dominate sounding 2 hole.
2. For the two hole chord WHISPER, BT uses 3w to represent the dominate 3 hole draw played with the less dominate sounding 4 hole. The upper hole whisper is more common hence this convention.
3. For the 3 hole "SMILE" chord, BT uses 3s to represent the 234 draw holes played. The 3 is close to being dominate but the idea here is also to represent what the overall attack hole is. 3s is basically playing the 3 hole and "smiling" to capture the 2 and 4 holes as well.
4. For TONGUE splits, BT uses 4t to represent the 1 and 4 draw holes played since the 4 hole is the dominate sounding note as it is higher pitched. For the 3 and 7 draw holes, 7T indicates a "fatter" tongue blocking of the 4, 5, and 6 draw holes.
5. For the 4 and 5 hole WARBLE / shake / trill, BT uses 4=. This departs from the normal convention of using 4=5 for several reasons. It is more concise and less "stretched". It is more CONSISTENT being that it only involves a SINGLE modifier after the first hole. It also highlights the 4 as the dominate note with the 5 used as ornamentation. It also very importantly, can more easily be computer manipulated.
***************************
REPEATED chords which are common in harp playing like chugging or similar? Use 3ss or 3sss to show two or three smile chords played successively. Or use the { }} notation (see Hole and Direction thread).
I see slides and glisses as similar to chording as well. Eg: 2>7 represents 2 hole draw to 7 hole draw. Other very similar representations are used for down glisses as well as for rips and boings.
More complicated chords? Use (2345) if needed - or 4sc or similar. But these uncommon chords do not muddy up the notation much. For less used techniques like Rakes, Shimmers, Hammered splits, chord Hammers, and tongue slaps, then something like 3R, 3S, 3h, 3H, 3! can be used respectively. But excessive tab chording notation is not recommended if possible. Usually better to leave it up to the player.
For QWERTY, concise representation of chords has not traditionally been notated well. Putting the numbers one under the other like in Standard Music notation (SM) is a nightmare to type and line up. Putting them together and bracketing, tying or striking them out as in normal Harp Tab (HT) is less concise and can cause one to confuse a string of notes with a chord, but worse, it often "stretches" the notation making the eye see durations longer than what they really are. Visual rhythm notation is key.
For more info on Beat Tab, visit:
https://sites.google.com/site/btabnotation/
or email me at BeatTabNotation@gmail.com
|
