"When the seal with a microphone is very good, the air pressure changes are effectively “coupled” to the microphone’s diaphragm in a way that is very, very different from the normal “free air” mode in which mics were designed to operate. The result is a very distorted signal sent to the amp. Note that to accomplish such a seal, you must not only create an airtight seal between the rear of your harp and the microphone, you must also seal off the open holes on the front of the harp – otherwise the air you blow/suck is free to travel under the coverplates, through all the open reeds and out/in the other open holes on the harp..."
I always forget to cover the front of the harp. However, I also feel vindicated that this is a legit technique. Some more advanced players in my circles have, uh, pooh-pooh'd the idea.
Last Edited by on Apr 08, 2010 4:44 AM
I do this hole-covering with my right thumb when on the lower register, and it does seem to make a difference. I had never even heard of such a thing before frequenting this forum. ---------- Todd L Greene. V.P.
One master of the "full cup" technique is Dennis Gruenling. Acoustic and amplified, he can get huge "wahs" off the side of his cheek by (un)covering the front of the harp (and sounds pretty fine - ANOTHER EDIT - @Elwood: and pretty legitimate, too!).
EDIT: Phil Wiggins springs to mind as a "full cupper," too, but I haven't had the privilege of seeing him play up close...
What's interesting, though, is that there are players who - to my ear at least - get equally sonorous and expressive wahs (Rory McLeod, Joe Filisko, Grant Dermody, for example) by cupping only a half to two-thirds of the harp and leaving the front open...
In fact, here's a video of Grant (you may enjoy his answer to the question Richard Sleigh (himself a "full-cupper?") asks about cupping...)
Sealing the front of the harp is essential to getting a good "wah", for sure. I'm no expert on how essential it is to amplified tone.
Greg Heumann has three videos on this that I have found useful. Greg is tongue-blocking in these, I believe. I find for lip-pursing, Adam's two-thumbs-up grip works better for me, but I like Greg's grip and method when TBing.
@captainbliss--I had the privilege of taking several group classes from Phil Wiggins last summer--he does do a very tight cup when he wants that kind of acoustic sound, but mostly, it seems to me, he plays fairly open--just using that great cup for a special effect.
The Phil Wiggins cup includes turning your head a bit and playing out the side of the mouth so the upper holes are covered with the right cheek. I think you pretty much have to tounge block to get the lower holes covered--but I'd bet that a really good player like Adam could do it either way.
I had a lesson from Buddha once--and he can have a student doing a proper blues cup in about a minute.
Phil uses OOTB MB's--and, another unrelated but interesting thing--he cannot bend while TBing. . .
If you get a tight enough cup on a good harp and hold it so your face blocks a bunch of holes you can actually do a low note blow and get a high note draw and vice versa. I have one harp that's got such a good seal I can block the ten hole with my thumb and get the 9 to draw and blow while puffing on the low end.
I find that my amp is more prone to feedback if I cup tight. Is this typical or am I doing something wrong. Suggestions appreciated. ---------- MBH member since 2009-03-24
@Nacoran - if you can get one of the high reeds to sing it when playing down low it is a sign you're doing a very GOOD job of sealing the rear, and most of the front.
@gmacleod15 - I don't agree with walter exactly. When you cup very tight the amp should be LESS prone to feedback because the amp's sound can't reach the mic as easily. However in the transition from open to cupped, your hands act like a satellite dish and can reflect MORE sound to the mic - this DOES increase the tendency to feedback.
Hopefully you can find a setting where you're not that close to the hairy edge (more speakers, lower gain, bigger amp), but if you have to be there, you need to learn to go from open to a pretty protected cup and back quickly. I find it isn't so much an issue in going into the cup as it is for releasing it - perhaps I'm thinking about it less then. ---------- /Greg
IMHO a 100% seal is useless anyway. When you play the air has to go somewhere or has to com from somewhere. I can do a 100% tight seal with a harp that has unvented covers but then I can't play anymore because I run out of air within half a second or so. Just press a drinking glass against your mouth tightly and see for how long you can blow air into it. The secret is to have a controlled anount of leakage so that you still get the desired amount of compression while still having some air to play.
On a Marine Band for example, the air will escape through the holes on the side of the covers anyway with most players' cupping technique:
---------- If it ain't broke you just haven't fixed it enough ...
Last Edited by on Apr 09, 2010 3:08 AM
Bluefinger - you are right - if you can achieve such an airtight seal with a harp and a mic in your hands that the air can't go anywhere at all, then you have achieved cupping nirvana. 100% seal is a goal -until you get there you can't know what "close enough" sounds like. Most players I've coached on this can't come CLOSE to 100%. In actually using the technique, very slight leakage is required. The difference between even 95 and 98% of the way there is REAL.
Let's not throw out the baby with the bath water. It is a valid technique, it is where really thick tone and the deepest wah's come from. You can't tell anything from a photo of a player - we don't STAY in the fullest cup position of course.
