I've got the "notes" down and I can play plenty of basic tunes and blues riffs, but my tone is pretty awful3. What are some exercises to help fix that? I know that you should try to have as much of your mouth on the harp as possible and I'm practicing on making my bends fluid but that's about it.
Play a lot and don't be afraid to experiment. There are a lot of tutorials online for improving your tone, but you really have to play a lot and try different things. Pay attention to the changes you make and how they affect the tone.
Buy some of David Barrett's books. He's got huge tone and he knows how to teach.
On brass instruments we used long tones (holding one note for a long time and concentrate on the tone) for this and I have found this to work with the harp also. Lots of practice and close listening. After enough practice a better tone will pop out now and then. Your job is to figure out what you were doing when it happened and get it to happen more often.
Make some recordings now and refer back to them. It will help you see you are making progress.
Worth noting is the harp sounds best when well into the mouth.
NailIng a perfect 2 hole draw is the foremost important thing one can do in cross harp. As has been said getting it to sound full and fat is really the foundation
I like many others had a horrible 2 draw and working on it to the point of mastery did more for my tone than anything else
Metronome use And getting blues beats and 12 bar with common variations down
Holding notes mentioned above is a great thing.
Amplified is all about a nice tight cup keeping the harp deep in the mouth. The cup means closing holes 7-10 when not in use and covering the back of the harp in the cup. It should be as airtight as you can make it as any air gaps brighten and thin tone. Which can be nice on occasion for effect but being present all the time means bright shrill thin tone.
Last Edited by on Mar 21, 2012 9:14 PM
Practice dynamics. I think practicing playing really quietly all the way up through loud, learning how to do that in the course of a song, or even the course of a note is part of the mix.
Like STME58 said, practice sustained notes and change the shape of your mouth as you are doing it. Record yourself often. Try to listen to harp players and figure out exactly what tone it is you are looking for. The better your ear gets and the more things you can describe about what you are hearing the better you will be able to figure out how to adjust your sound.
The power of good tone is hidden within focused listening...Good tone co-habitats with a relaxed state of mind. A relaxed state of mind compliments good tone.
Building up "over time" - the muscles in your face, neck, and diaphragm will free up your mind to breathe life into a note. You want the note to feel as though its soaring, not like it has a tightening noose around it.
Your harmonica succumbs to good tone through the execution of gentle power, a note will squeal and yelp if carelessly manhandled.
In other words, You are not fighting a note to give you good tone, rather the note is submissive to your strong muscles supporting a relaxed embouchure, nimble technique and disciplined breathe control....
A big part of getting good tone is BREATH CONTROL, which far too often is ignored by most players and learning how to be 100% physically relaxed 24/7/365, also something the average player NEVER does, and when you try forcing everything, which, using a very politically incorrect but spot on description, being the D.A.M method (dumb ass macho) forcing everything, what you wind up doing is puttung heavy emphasis on the odd numbered harmonic overtones, which makes the tone sound like thin, tinny, harsh and just plain crappy, and you won't be playing resonantly, which is a big factor with good tone.
Better breathing technique and relaxation technique allows you to have better tone, and when it happens, you'll be playing more resonantly, which means that your playing puts emphasis on the EVEN numbered harmonic overtones, and to the human ear, that sounds sweet, warm, pleasant a fat as can be, and NONE of these things will ever be achieved with gear.
What I strongly recommend to every harp player to do is to go to a reputable vocal coach, because the very first things they will do is check your breathing and relaxation habits and can tell you what you need to do and trying to do this on the cheap thru videos so you can do it yourself I STRONGLY do NOT recommend because you yourself won't be a good judge of this at the outset and you need someone who is experienced to check your habits and make corrections ASAP. Stay and learn vocals because just about everything that applies to vocals applies to harp and I personally GUARANTEE that your tone will improve pretty dramatically within 6 months to a year. I've done this and not once have I EVER regretted it. ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
Bob, we need to sticky your breath control write up to the top of the forum. Your fingers must get tired from typing it over and over :)
I'm just having a little fun with you, but it definitely is important. I meet players and am often surprised by how little control, in general, is exercised on this instrument.
Along with Bob's mantra, which is 105% true 24/7/365/1000, (just funnin' with ya, Bob), the position of your jaw and where your tongue lies in your mouth at any given time, and 'wierd' things you might not have ever considered, such as how open your throat is, playing seated versus standing up straight, playing with your head held straight ahead instead of looking down or up, and the tilt and depth of the harp in your mouth all have a huge effect on the tone you produce. Experiment with all of this, as all of us are built different. Some folks attain great and deep tone effortlessly, while others have to really, really work at it. ---------- Todd L. Greene
Without seeing and hearing what you mean when you say 'awful' tone, it's difficult to offer pertinent suggestions.
ALL of the above are great suggestions. If you lip purse, relax the embouchure to ensure a really open air passage.
Lip blocking is useful for this, where you tilt the harp, so the lower lip isolates the single holes.
This way you lose the often tense pursed position of the lips which can result in thin tone. Tongue blocking, once the tongue is relaxed and nimble enough, usually gives good tone, also.
Basically, relax, relax and relax. Let your breath flow into the harp, without forcing it. It takes way less breath to animate the harp than you think. Relaxed breathing gives you much better control, as well.
And love each sound you make on the harp. Long tones are great for this. By gently playing one note, you can really get a feel for dynamics; just how much air pressure you need to sound the note, or increase it or diminish it, or hold it steady, etc...this will also make you a much better resonating chamber.
I'm not sure if this will sound dumb, but building tone is something you have to ACTIVELY work on. I used to close my eyes and listen to very slow notes (long tones, before I knew what they were). It was a long time ago, and I was like 19-20, but I just remember trying to shape the notes, control the notes, just FEEL every note that I was playing. Licks are great, as well as scales, and techniques, but the base note(s) is the foundation. Recording yourself doesn't hurt, either. ---------- 12gagedan's YouTube Channel
Thanks for posting the Sankey video. It is good to be reminded of the basics in different ways. I spent some time practicing the harp techniques in the video last night. Today my brass quintet met for rehersal, and I swear the harp practice improved my trombone tone. I still didn't hit all the notes but my tone was better :-)
Regardless of whatever embouchure you use, as I use both LP as well as TB, and frequently switch embouchures during the phrase, you absolutely have to be 100% FULLY RELAXED at ALL times because what most players fail to understand is that you are constantly making adjustments to the embouchure as well as the inside shape of your mouth, much like in vocals or everyday speech to get vowels/consonants properly, and with harmonica, it's so you can do anything with the instrument and players who are teaching themselves tend to stiffen up and force everything all the time and they don't realize that all they're doing is shooting themselves in the foot all the damned time. ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
