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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! > Working on tone
Working on tone
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akmarmot
11 posts
Nov 29, 2012
10:41 AM
I wanted to share a few things I've been working on as far as when I pick up the harp and am just working on tone. The more I've been working on tone the more humble I get.

I've been reading more and more about breathing _through_ the harp as opposed to at it, etc. That and relaxing and not hitting it so hard. In general, breath control. I've started pinching my nose from time to time to see if the sound changes at all. Sometimes I record a few minutes of just breathing, tongue blocking vs. puckering, octaves, dawdling up and down the scale, etc. Is it OK to be this obsessed? How do people best manage their recorded practice stuff?

Came across this, thought it was interesting: http://archive.harmonicasessions.com/jun05/nose.html

Thanks to those who put this stuff out there, Happy Thursday.
nacoran
6235 posts
Nov 29, 2012
1:53 PM
Hmm, I've taken the opposite approach. I think breathing through your nose a bit helps you manage your breath (and I don't hear any difference if I pinch my nose). I seem to regulate how much breath goes out the nose based on my air needs at the time. I can stop breathing through my nose but it seems counter productive. I can hold a blow not for about 30 seconds today, but my asthma is acting up a bit. Same for a draw.

As for how to best manage your recorded practice, do you mean how to store it on your computer? I make session folders and song folders. Random stuff goes in the session folders. Particular songs go in the specific song folders. If I have lots of versions of a song each version gets it's own sub-folder. (This is particularly important if you are using Audacity, since it creates several files for each project and it's good to keep them all together, and to save each time you make major changes.)

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Frank
1516 posts
Nov 29, 2012
5:25 PM
Yes - it is okay to be "that obsessed"…And don’t let anyone get in your way of becoming a better harmonica player and musician in general…If you have the time to spend countless hours obsessing over unleashing the master musician within- then proceed with enthusiastic abandon. As far as learning the skills to best manage your practice time - create a plan with goals you believe are vitally important to be realized and accomplished for where your at presently as a musician and harp player; then take the time necessary to achieve your burning desires without rushing the results!
jbone
1118 posts
Nov 29, 2012
10:00 PM
ak, you are at a real threshold if you are thinking about breath control. most players and siongers use much less than their potential of capacity. the more you use ie breathing deeper and using that bottom 1/3 to 1/2 of your lungs- and toning all those associated muscles, the better your control becomes and the deeper your tone becomes. AND less effort is required.
there was a time i would blow my voice out in a set or 2 because i sang HARD from my throat. i also sucked out a lot of draw 4 reeds back then. once i got some lessons and began breathing exercises, my playing and singing relaxed and got deeper and easier. not to say i have not had many challenges even so, but with better stamina and an easier time of playing and singing all night it's become much more natural to me.
you are on the right track!
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akmarmot
12 posts
Nov 29, 2012
11:38 PM
Hey thanks. I too have blown out way too many reeds in the past to blame it on a particular manufacturer, type of harmonica, style of music, etc. Way too much effort, if you're always at 11 then where do you go from there?

As far as organization goes at first I was thinking about using Dropbox for stuff I want to keep around or examples to work on and then I seem to have a ton of what I like to call Crap that doesn't seem to need to live beyond one listening. I can't believe I've gone this long without recording myself seriously and it's like the first time you heard yourself talk or sing. The other thing I started dabbling with was just having headphones on the recording station so I get a different, monitor sounding feel for what it is that I'm playing.

I started really obsessing over what tone is, where it comes from, how to control it, when I tried playing through an amp that my brother had, with any assortment of wizbang pedals, different mics, etc., and I just couldn't get it to sound right on recording. And I think what just set me straight was when my brother told me to just shut up (my inner voice) and just told me to *listen* to what I was doing. I have too many things going on right now with family, school, and work, but would love at some point after I get this tone thing down get a amp setup, but that's another birthday away at the earliest.

Heading to the shed.


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