|
Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
Vibrato...what am I doing wrong
Vibrato...what am I doing wrong
Page:
1
Oisin
96 posts
Jan 28, 2009
1:48 AM
|
I have been trying for about 3 years now to get a good, controllable draw vibrato on harp. I can do it quite well on blow notes and can even control the speed not too badly.
However on draw notes it doesn't sound too good.
Strangley enough I CAN get quite a nice vibrato on the 2 hole draw of a 365 marine band (14 hole) but I just can't reproduce it on any of my other harps.
As result of this I find myself using the 3 blow instead of the 2 draw alot as i can make this sound not too bad with vibrato.
Now I tried all the tips that are out there and I really do get the message that Adam gave in one of his YOutube videos that what I should be aiming for is that the walls of the throat should vibrate together but not touch.
Can anyone give me some sure fire ways to get a good vibrato?? Please don't say " just do what you're doing on blow notes in reverse as I have tried (Lord knows I've tried!!) to do this but just can't. My draw vibrato still sounds like a machine gun.
Please help!!
Oisin
|
Axident
10 posts
Jan 28, 2009
5:07 AM
|
I am very new to the harp but I played flute years ago which helped me develop vibrato.
If you are specifically trying to develop throat vibrato then I can't help you as my vibrato is from the diaphragm. I guess what I am trying to say/ask is have you tried using other forms of vibrato to achieve similar results to your blow vibrato.
If you are interested in diaphragm vibrato, a good place to start would be to try and sing with vibrato. Because the diaphragm vibrato is coming from below, the change in wind direction doesn't seem to alter the vibrato all that much.
I have only been playing the harp for 3 weeks and using the same vibrato from my flute playing days translated to the harp with little to no issues. My vibrato is a bit rusty due to not having played the flute in years, but it is coming back more and more each day.
I realize this doesn't help your throat vibrato one bit and I am sorry to have wasted your time if that was your one an only concern, but I figured I would mention my experience with vibrato as it relates to the harp.
Almost forgot about hand vibrato, but if you've been playing for 3+ years you've probably got that one down a long time ago.
Last Edited by on Jan 28, 2009 5:07 AM
|
cm16600
57 posts
Jan 28, 2009
5:19 AM
|
This worked for me, hit the Blue third gently and try holding it as long as you can,do it several times until it gets perfect, try then do do the same thing pronouncing A.A.A.A .Try to relax as much as possible,if you play low volume it will be easier to relax .If you get the chance to hit the vibrato you want, close your eyse and get a mental picture of your throat ,tongue, mouth and muscles.It will be easier to remember how you did it .Why blue third? It was the best air flow i had to do the vibrato at first .
Don't know if this will help , it did for me.
Good luck
Chris
Last Edited by on Jan 28, 2009 5:24 AM
|
Chevus
6 posts
Jan 28, 2009
10:06 AM
|
I've seen/read a few comments that suggest playing while on your back...This may help you get a feel for the proper technique and breathing required to get your desired vibrato. At a certain point, muscle memory kicks in and you should be able to reproduce it while in the upright position.
I nope this helps!
|
harpnoodler
24 posts
Jan 28, 2009
10:25 AM
|
Tell me if I'm violating any protocols by posting this stuff from Harp-L.
Vibrato acquisition is, I think, a long process. I have one, but it is limited. My main goal in harp-playing now is not to learn any new licks or songs, but primarily to develop a controlled vibrato. I think Adam's advice is great: practise and it will come.
But for those of you who need to engage the verbal brain, I have never heard or read a better description of a systematic approach to this discipline than the various posts on Harp-L by Winslow Yerxa. I have never heard him play, but can vouch that his encyclopedic knowledge of harmonica, his intellectual precision and his crystal clear writing skills make it worthwhile to seek out and seriously consider everything he writes about our little instrument.
Here are a couple of examples:
"I'm sticking my neck out here because I haven't
heard the recording in question. Have you
identified how many time per beat Rick is
pulsing? The better players often (though
certainly not always) time their vibratos to a
division of the beat.
Is it just the slow speed of the vibrato that
you're having trouble with, or some other aspect
as well? Any of the methods you mentioned can
produce a slow vibrato.
Vibrato is just a repetition of a single action
at a steady rate. That rate can be whatever you
want, within the limits of your body's ability
and what you consider musically useful. But often
vibrato is learned as something you just turn on
and off, letting the speed be set by whatever
involuntary rate is produced when your body
follows its line of least resistance.
Controlling the speed of vibrato is something you
can learn by:
1) identifying (or choosing) the action that
produces it
2) isolating that action so that you can do it
ONCE and stop
3) Performing a widely spaced series of single
actions, so that you get practice in producing it
voluntarily more than once in a row.
4) starting a metronone and repeating the single
action in a sequence at a regular rate, smoothing
out transitions between actions.
5) working up or down in speed using the
metronome so that you can produce the vibrato at
any rate you choose.
Pulse rates for vibrato are usualy more than once
per beat, typcially 2, 3, or 4. For very slow
pulse rates, it may be practical to practive them
once per beat, as the metronome may not a have a
slow enough setting for multiples. Also, most
players have a big problem not rushing the beat
at very slow tempos.
For medium rates, it's probably best to start
with one per beat for maximum corrective feedback
from the metronome, then go to two per beat -
keeping your pulse rate the same but setting the
metronome twice as fast.
For three per beat, start with the pulse rate
you're working at, and find a slower metronome
beat that will group the same pulse rate in
threes instead of twos. Using the same metronome
beat and pulsing it in threes pushes you into a
faster rate that you may not be ready to handle.
Better to use the same pulse rate and just find a
metronome beat that groups it in threes instead
of twos.
For instance, let's say you're pulsing two ber
beat at a metronome beat of 120 beats per minute
(bpm). That's a pulse rate of 240. 240 divided by
2 pulses per beat is 120. 240 divided by 3 pulses
per beat is 80.
For really fast rates, the metronome won't go
fast enough to keep up with every one or two
pulses, so you'll have to go to 4. for instance,
480 pulses per minute is too fast for the
metronome, and so is 240 for most metronomes. But
120 is something they can all produce.
I'm currently working on learning faster
throat/diaphragm vibrato. I've always been
comfortable dividing the beat into 3 or 4 pulses
at medium tempos, but now for the stuff I'm
playing nowadays I need to be able to pulse at
around 480/minute (4 pulses/beat at 120 beats per
minute.) Every day I spend 20-30 minutes with a
metronome (currently set around 80) doing first 8
beats of exhale then 8 of inhale, pulsing 4 to
the beat. Then 4 beats each way, then 2, then 1,
then changin breath every pusle, then various
syncopations. I do this with full 4-note chords
at first, then work on single notes. If I'm
feeling a bit vague, like I'm not staying in
synch with the beat, I'll double the tempo to 160
and play 2 per beat instead so that I have twice
as much "lock-in" from the metronome.
Winslow"
and
"When I first tackled this problem - not being able to play bent notes with vibrato - I concentrated on long, held bent notes. I found that throat vibrato would break up the bent note, so I concentrated on diaphragm vibrato - pulsing the muscles just below the peak at the inside of the rib cage. This allowed me to put a wave in the long tone. At the time I was imitating something played on a clarinet (Django Reinhardt's Lentement Mademoiselle) and it seemed to match the clarinetist's even, non-pitched-based vibrato. The diaphragm vibrato gave me exactly what I needed in that siutation (long held bent notes) and for the expressive needs of that tune. But it came with a second benefit that showed up later - the ability to do what seems to be throat vibrato on bent notes without effort or interference. I suspect that if you can start and stop a note while it's bent, if you can play a series of these rapidly - say at the rate of four per second - and then connect them so they flow as a single long stream with "pulses" in it - you'll be able to play a nice even vibrato on a bent note - and on a blow note, draw note, overblow, etc. It'll be a single kind of vibrato, too, that won't sound radically different as you change between these note production methods. You stop the note by closing off the air flow with the throat. And you can do this while holding the embouchure that produces a bent note. But you don't have to close the air stream of completely. You can nudge the air stream without stopping it, putting a pulsing wave into the note.
Winslow Yerxa"
|
harpwrench
9 posts
Jan 28, 2009
3:07 PM
|
Make sure you're blocking off the nasal passages.
|
Oisin
97 posts
Jan 29, 2009
4:57 AM
|
Many thanks for all these tips you guys. I'll try all of these over the next few days. The blocking off the nasal passages is something I've just tried to do while sitting at my desk with no harp and that seems to work quite well.
Oisin
|
Post a Message
|
