Re: [Harp-L] Electronic Tuner Use

[Pierre <plavio@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Gidday,
> I am a newbie and am wondering about using my electronic tuner for working 
> on tone control. It tells me if I hit the note correctly, displaying a 
> centralised needle position with  both a sharp and flat light on and an 
> electronic cricket. So, when I play a C harp 2 hole draw it will tell me 
> it is flat, but I don't know how to control the tone on the flats.

You control the tone by shaping your oral cavity. This includes things like 
tongue pacement (forward and aft, up and down) and mainly by opening up your 
throat. You have to experiment.

So, it does
> have a range of +/- 50 cents on the scale, but not only do I not know 
> about cents,

An octave is 1200 cents. So 100 cents per semitone.

I also don't know the value for C harp, 3 hole B flat draw, A on a 3
> hole draw, or A flat on the same hole.

Not sure what you mean? I think your tuner may be a guitar tuner and may not 
have all the notes. Chromatic tuners show all the notes.

Can my current tuner be used in this
> manner, or is there a product recommended that will tell me if I have good 
> tone on these bended notes? I know to listen, but at this early stage of 
> learning I have found it very useful to get the right tone, and then try 
> and make a mental note of the sound for future reference.

Yes you should be able to use a tuner for pich, but not for tone. You can 
download Bendometer which is a cool program to show what you are playing. I 
use Bendometer a lot. Its free for a month.

For me the hardest note is the Bb (first bend on 3 hole). There are three 
aspects to work on, pitch, tone and as Froggy mentioned stability. I have 
been working on this hole for about 3 months and I see a great improvement 
in all three aspects, but I still cannot nail the pitch every time although 
I am much closer.

Basically to get better, you need to practice getting the right pitch with a 
fat rich tone (i.e. resonance). At first don't worry about stability. I used 
to do a vibrato centered around the Bb to avoid losing the note which want 
to go to A. Once I got better I started doing an exercise where I do all the 
notes of the 3 hole and also playing the Peter Gun theme and other 
improvised exercises.

Tab:
http://www.harptab.com/blues/gunn.shtml

I found that once I got better at getting the Bb, I got worse at nailing the 
pitch of the A, sigh... so more work ahead for me.

As far as I am concerned, to play well you have to have a great 3 hole. Once 
you have good tone on all the notes of the 3 holes, everything else gets 
much better.

Happy harpin'

Pierre.