Part of what he does is dependant on the way he manipulates the INSIDE shape of his mouth while his embouchure is steady AND fully relaxed. Think of forming vowel sounds while your doing it. ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
another thing about his vibrato is this- it influenced his singing vibrato big time or maybe it was his singing vibrato that influenced his harp vibrato. I know that the harp vibrato has led to it getting into my singing and guitar playing over the years. Walter ---------- walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year. " life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
Ok I'll not even try to autopsy the play of my master, my guru, but having said that, what is impressive is the second voice that Sonny i doing with his instrument.
Like I've said many times, the masters of every instrument have their own sound, because everybody has a different morphology. It's even more true for advanced diatonic harmonica players (Ok Stevie Wonder is the huge exception) since we're the only player who have to "inhale" the sound (same as the chromatic) while shaping the notes, bending them. Sonny is one of the perfect example that he plays like he sings...
I'll not enter into the controversy of saying if it's a tremolo or a vibrato, from Howard Levy and others Sonny Boy is using a tremolo for both his voice and harmonica, but to me it's a vibrato since the voice and the instrument are so intimately linked together.
During my oboe years my two teachers taught me that every time that I'm struggling with a bit of music, leave the instrument and then sing it...And it works all the time. This is the same advice I'm giving to my students.
---------- Never try to be as good as someone else, succeed to be the best player you can be!
I second what Cristal said. - the master - Jelly shakin on a plate - I tend to believe most of the deeper vibrato is diaphram controlled - as his voice would be. - but I was wrong once - and could be agian. ----------
I use my diaphram to get that kind of vibrato. It's my personal favorite! I can't get it all the time on all notes, but the more I play the more it just happens! ----------
That vibrato (the one at 3:09 and possibly elsewhere - I haven't watched the whole clip yet) is achieved with the middle of the tongue rapidly moving up and down (and also forwards and backwards - not as complicated as it sounds) against the palate. It's not diaphragm vibrato.
---------- Andrew, gentleman of leisure, noodler extraordinaire.
Last Edited by on Mar 23, 2011 10:46 AM
I had not much success with trying to emulate SB II, and so after many years of inability, I simply went with doing things that I was proficient at. So much is dependent on our individual physical makeup that determines what we can, or cannot, do. So, ...just this past week, I was demonstrating several TB techniques to a student. During this I found that by doing an extreme right side TB, I could GET the SB II effect. What had changed ? I had two upper back molars pulled about a year ago. Now, the inner mouth airflow has a different path. Go figure.
Last Edited by on Mar 22, 2011 4:32 PM