Split Chord

[A.J.Fedor]

Split Chording or Chord Splitting = ?

[A.J.Fedor]

Split Chord or Chord splitting:

A fairly easy chord harmonica technique whereby the player plays two adjacent chords while blocking the high notes of the left chord and the low notes of the right chord with his/her tongue to produce unique chords that are otherwise unattainable.

[chrissie]

Wow!  That sounds tricky!

[A.J.Fedor]

Actually, it's pretty easy. (Just went back and added that part to the definition  )
The hardest part is coming up with a chord harmonica 

[pyro_fire60099]

Age, I've been learning and playing music with splits chords since the mid 80's are they easy? NO way! here is a list of all regular and split chord combinations that can be played on the Hohner 48 chord harmonica the Suzuki 48 chord has some of the same but then produces many other chords because it uses 3 different chord inversions on this harmonica, Wally

Here is a small lists of chords in either the straight  position or in the split position that are on the Hohner 48 chord Note: these are played  with the major chords on top minor chords on bottom, if you flip the chord upside down you get a whole different world of split chords.

12-Major                                      11-Major 7th (draw-different tongue block position)
12-Dominant 7th                                        11-6th (draw-different tongue block position)
12-Minor                                      11-Dominant 7#9th (Jimi Hendrix chord)
6-Diminished 7th                                       12- 5th (Cajun sounding chord)                 
6-Augmented                                       11-Minor 7th -Tongue block 2 minor chords                                               
11-Major 9th                                       11-Minor 9th -Tongue block 2 minor chords                                                   
11-Major 7th-blow                             11- inverted Major- Tongue block 2 minor chords                   
11-6th-blow                                        11- inverted Major 7th -Tongue block 2 minor chords
1-Am6 (tongue block E+ and F#Dim7)

Please note: I left out about 15 more chords that can be made by tongue block/ splitting 2 minor chords and drawing  between a Augmented and a Diminishd chord , I will add those to this list   

[Bill Morris]

Actually, it's pretty easy. (Just went back and added that part to the definition  )
The hardest part is coming up with a chord harmonica 

Age,

I can help with the chord harmonicas.  I rebuild Hohner 48's for resale at reasonable prices.  Interested Slidemeisters in the US can contact me via PM.

Bill

[John Broecker]

Hello, Wally (pyrofire) and Bill Morris.

Wally: thanks for this list of tongue-splitting chords on a Hohner 48 chord harp. I'll file this in my "library."

It never ocurred to me that turning the harp upside down would produce more tongue-split chords.

Bill: I'll send you a PM.

Thanks for your help.

Best Regards

John Broecker

[A.J.Fedor]

Wally, ("you old Chordomaniac"  )
I'm not much of a chord player and don't know about all the ones you mentioned, but the ONE I do is really easy!Ha Ha!

[pyro_fire60099]

Hey John,  Please keep this in mind.. finding split chords, identifying and playing them in the many position along with the basic 48 chords has been a life long passion, trying to explain what I do with my tongue to block certain holes, how I shift my jaw along with being able to push rhythm sounds from the back of my throat with out cough or grunting sounds will one day be my goal to make teaching videos to help others. I'm concerned with your comment of....

" Wally: thanks for this list of tongue-splitting chords on a Hohner 48 chord harp. I'll file this in my "library
It never occurred to me that turning the harp upside down would produce more tongue-split chords. "


 As I have shared this with the Slidemeister family freely...
You have published in the past articles on split chords that can be played on the Hohner 48 chord harmonica that are totally impossible to play with the human mouth?? All the chords i have shared with Slidemeister I have accomplished from many years of bloody lips, chipped teeth and lots of crash and burn mistakes. music requires to use these chords and that's the ONLY reason that I play them in my chord style of playing, not to brag or to wow people. First learn how to play the 48 chord's basic positions and get them exact because playing splits requires you to deliberately play between two adjacent chords while tongue blocking certain notes then jumping back to a basic chord and resuming your rhythm. it gets crazy sometimes but when you hit them on the money it sounds wonderful, but when you miss the sound can be very hard on the ears...

                                                                         Wally P

[clyde]

Actually, it's pretty easy. (Just went back and added that part to the definition  )
The hardest part is coming up with a chord harmonica 

Age,

I can help with the chord harmonicas.  I rebuild Hohner 48's for resale at reasonable prices.  Interested Slidemeisters in the US can contact me via PM.

Bill

yes he does and thanks

[Grizzly]

I just got a rebuilt chord from Bill, with the relative minors  instead of the parallel minors below the majors. What a hoot! (pun intended) After experimenting with it, I can appreciate the wisdom of the parallels, as they share the same V7 chords as the majors. But for what I usually play (accompaniment to fiddle dance tunes), the relative setup is ideal.

Now, what I'm thinking of doing is to attach the original parallel deck to the other two, and make a triple-decker! I know, I know, this is a big-time fudge; i should just learn one or the other. It may come to that. Meanwhile, I'm having a ball, and can finally play in A and E, which my little Chordet 20 is lacking. Even as a double-decker, this thing is a monster.

All the reedplates are attached with screws, which will make maintenance a lot easier (like I'm gonna take it apart any time soon).

Thanks, Bill Morris, you done good.

tom

[Bill Morris]

I just got a rebuilt chord from Bill, with the relative minors  instead of the parallel minors below the majors. What a hoot! (pun intended) After experimenting with it, I can appreciate the wisdom of the parallels, as they share the same V7 chords as the majors. But for what I usually play (accompaniment to fiddle dance tunes), the relative setup is ideal.

Now, what I'm thinking of doing is to attach the original parallel deck to the other two, and make a triple-decker! I know, I know, this is a big-time fudge; i should just learn one or the other. It may come to that. Meanwhile, I'm having a ball, and can finally play in A and E, which my little Chordet 20 is lacking. Even as a double-decker, this thing is a monster.

All the reedplates are attached with screws, which will make maintenance a lot easier (like I'm gonna take it apart any time soon).

Thanks, Bill Morris, you done good.

tom

My pleasure!  Have fun with it and let us all know how it's going.

Bill

[iowaplayer]

tom,

al smith used to play a huge honking chord with FOUR decks.  it was a really floppy monster too, until my dad built him a set of aluminum brackets to hold things in place.

just be careful.  its easy enough to whack yerself fair hard in the chops with  stock chord without adding at least 50% more mass to shift around.  good luck with that one!

btw, i never did get into chord splitting.  we didn't do a lot of jazz, and, at  least in the trio format, i never felt the loss of any chords that weren't available on my chords.
i used to watch eddie gordon in awe, both of his rhythms and his splits.    boy can that man play!
i think al fiore did some splits to, but if he did, they were pretty subtle.

one of the highlights of my life came when murad, fiore, my dad, brother and i were playing in my dad's front room back in the eighties.  al asked me to play peg, and i balked a bit.  after all, it was HIS song, right?   so he reminded me that he'd known me since just after i learned to walk, and told me to play  the thing.  so i did, and got to hear al playing chord harmony to my chord lead.  WOW!!!!   made it really hard to concentrate, ya know?

oh, yeah.  i'm still a bit mystified about turning a chord upside down to get additional splits.  the geometry on that one escapes me.  but then again, a lot of things do ~~~

iowaplayer