[Harp-L] Bending Tone and Intonation



Dick Anderson (who's playing was way cool at SPAH) gave us his notes from
his Teach In session with George, Chris, Michael and Alan about improving
intonation and tonality of the overblows.

I thought it worthwhile to point out that the same tips, exercises and
advice apply to regular bent notes !!  As a matter of fact, I was fortunate
enough to spend my Friday Teach In session with George on "Bending to
Pitch", and he covered many of the same topics.  I think the advanced
overblow practitioner is tuned into these issues, but it is too easy for the
intermediate player ("I know how to bend!") to overlook that the same
criteria should be applied to normal bends before you can get too far down
the road.  I thought my bends were at least fair until I stood next to
George at the piano and realized that on certain notes my bending was either
horrid or non-existent.  As Joe F. stated in his intro to the Teach In,
bending to pitch is THE essential skill of blues harmonica playing, and
George re-iterated that it's the hallmark of a "really good" player.

So in case beginning-to-intermediate players might have skipped over Dick's
post since it had OB in the title, and at risk of being redundant, I am
repeating Dick's notes (with a little editing) so that we can think of how
well these apply to normal bending.  * = I heard this from George during the
"bending to pitch" session also, which had nothing (and everything) to do
with overblowing. 

To improve tone and pitch control of BENT NOTES
* Play with an open throat such as just before yawning (also, with that same
feeling of tightness in the diaphragm for support).
* Stand and use diaphragm support for airstream.
- Build diaphragm support by blowing into a straw in a glass of water and
trying to keep the bubbles as one continuous stream.  (ok for blow bends,
not sure what the equivalent exercise would be for draw bends ... a
smoke-less bong, perhaps?)
* Play with deep embouchure and lower jaw to increase size of interior of
mouth 
* Practice playing (bent notes) at (their) minimum sound volume.
* Choose the position/key to play carefully using the song's chord structure
and don't expose the {bend} if you don't have to.
* Get a keyboard in tune and play scales (or at first single tones) against
the notes comparing your intonation. **** !!!! **** 
- Play (a bent) tone from soft to loud and back to soft as you observe the
note on a tuner or compare against the keyboard
- Play (full or partial blues) scales over two octaves in (many) keys
listening for the correct intonation.

Good stuff.  Amazing how much you can learn from having someone who knows
what they're doing listen to your playing and talking about theirs.

Thanks George, Dick, Chris, Michael, Alan, et. al. for the pointers..
Fred S





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