Lesson 3

Trills
There are two basic trills used by blues harp players, the hole 4 and 5
draw trill and the hole 3 and 4 draw trill. The idea here is pretty
simple. You just draw in on the harp and move the harp back and
forth across your mouth either with your hands or by shaking your
head. Mastering these trills is not easy however. Again, you have to
be careful to sound each note individually or the effect will not be the
desired one. Once you have mastered the basic trills you can try
things like bending the trilled notes while you trill. You can also
experiment with finding other trills on the harp on your own.
The trills look like this:
4-5 draw trill

4 5 4 5 4 5 4 5 4 5 4 5
-------------------------------------------------------------------
D D D D D D D D D D D D

Click here to download an audio file of the "4-5 draw trill" above
played on a "C" harmonica:

4-5 draw trill .au format

4-5 draw trill .wav format

3-4 draw trill

3 4 3 4 3 4 3 4 3 4 3 4
-------------------------------------------------------------------
D D D D D D D D D D D D
Click here to download an audio file of the "3-4 draw trill" above
played on a "C" harmonica:

3-4 draw trill .au format

3-4 draw trill .wav format

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