Goldbrick
343 posts
Mar 13, 2014
6:25 PM
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How is he getting that trumpet tone on the turn around ?
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blueswannabe
425 posts
Mar 13, 2014
6:44 PM
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His hands.
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Slimharp
244 posts
Mar 14, 2014
8:34 AM
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Playing for 50 years.
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Goldbrick
348 posts
Mar 14, 2014
8:40 AM
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Wow I should have just asked Mick Jagger ' cause he has been playin' for 50 years too
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Dog Face
249 posts
Mar 14, 2014
8:45 AM
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+1 blueswannabe
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Brad
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Kingley
3512 posts
Mar 14, 2014
8:46 AM
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He's just playing a way-wah with his hands. It's a very easy technique to learn, but to get it too sound as good as Sonny Boy might take you a while.
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mr_so&so
794 posts
Mar 14, 2014
10:23 AM
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Adam has two excellent lessons on Sonny Boy II's style in his store on this site. Sonny Boy's Blues covers the hand-wah turnaround Goldbrick mentions. And the Help Me lesson will save you a lot of time on a solo from SBW's Chess recording of that classic.
When I first bought those lessons a few years back, I put them aside because they were more than I could handle. I recently came across them again and have had a lot of fun with them. I have to say SBW II is my favourite player. A classic fusion of pre- and post-war sounds on his Chess recordings. After that leg-up from Adam's lessons, I am now going to make a serious study of Sonny Boy II. You can learn a lot about singing and overall entertaining from him too.
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Last Edited by mr_so&so on Mar 14, 2014 10:29 AM
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Goldbrick
349 posts
Mar 14, 2014
12:46 PM
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Sonny Boy is my all around favorite -Had a great voice too that complemented his playing and had a playful manner
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The Iceman
1522 posts
Mar 14, 2014
3:38 PM
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One secret to great hand wah is to NOT simulate or mouth "wah" with your mouth...it is ONLY the hands.
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The Iceman
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blueswannabe
430 posts
Mar 14, 2014
6:17 PM
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@iceman, yes..I agree. When I first started I thought it was a mouth wah. Then slowly learned it was good cupping technique and not altering the sound of the note with your breath...just merely using the hands with a good cup technique. Although there are times when a mouth wah is used or a vibrato, it is not being used in Goldbrick's post IMHO.
How do I know, I took out a harp and tried it.
Last Edited by blueswannabe on Mar 14, 2014 6:19 PM
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bonedog569
909 posts
Mar 15, 2014
1:43 AM
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OK - the hand cup is an important part of it, but it's an oversimplification of what , in SB's case, is the ultimate blues harp VOICE (a better more complete term than 'tone' IMO). I believe it starts in his gut, which controls the breath, and is a reflection of his whole body and being. Listen to the warble in his vocals. The hand cup works together with what's happening in his mouth, throat and gut. The reeds are just locked to everything he is doing.
Yes the wah on the turnaround is more hand cup than vibrato he does at other times, but it's not just his hands. It's varying a blend of everything he does to make the harp speak. Like Garcia on guitar, Coltrane on the sax, you know it's them as soon as you hear a note - a sound. It's more than one isolated technique.
Last Edited by bonedog569 on Mar 15, 2014 1:43 AM
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Kingley
3513 posts
Mar 15, 2014
3:08 AM
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Bonedog is thinking along the right lines here. Iceman's comment is an oversimplification of the technique. When playing a wah-wah, there are many factors at work. Breathing is obviously a huge part of it. The hands of course are a major part. You can also use the hands in different ways to create different tones and extremes of wah-wah. An opening wah-wah sounds different to a closing wah-wah. One with vibrato sounds different to one without, the amount of vibrato makes a difference. A heel of the hand opening (or bottom wah-wah) sounds different to a top opening one. A thumbs up grip sounds different to a reference standard grip wah-wah. Whether you use diaphragmatic breathing or lung breathing will make a huge difference. bending a note whilst doing a wah-wah, or releasing a bend will create a different sound, etc, etc. Like I said earlier it's a very easy technique to learn , but to master it takes a long time and some people will never be able to recreate the kind of talking wah-wah to sound the way that Sonny Boy or Kim Wilson do.
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puri
145 posts
Mar 15, 2014
6:05 AM
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@Kingley, you skipped from Sonny Boy to Kim and forgot to mention Rick Estrin? :) Nobody does it better than him.
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Kingley
3515 posts
Mar 15, 2014
6:10 AM
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Hahaha! Puri you're right of course. Rick does a mean wah-wah :)
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JonV
12 posts
Mar 15, 2014
6:48 AM
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Sorry for going off topic..
Are we safe to assume Sonny Boy was playing and singing through the same mic here?
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Kingley
3516 posts
Mar 15, 2014
6:58 AM
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Pretty much Jon yes. I remember reading once though (maybe in Willie Dixons- I am the Blues book?) that Sonny Boy had a habit of knocking over mics on stands (probably due to drinking too much) when in the studio. So they would quite often record him using a vocal mic on a stand and also use overhead mics, just in case. So it could be any combination of those mics.
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colman
298 posts
Mar 15, 2014
7:09 AM
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Ab-Waa...one of the many words in blues harp speak.with some encouragement of hand wa-wa...without language articulations blues harp would be flat...To get motion in a chord chugg one of the words that move things is Dit-Dit-huu-Dat-datt...
Last Edited by colman on Mar 15, 2014 2:38 PM
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blueswannabe
433 posts
Mar 15, 2014
11:48 AM
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Tried the turnaround again. You can use a vibrato with the hand wah. In fact that was how I tested it initially.
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