Does anyone know the ORIGIN of Harmonica TECHNIQUES? How they came about? What instruments, etc. were the catalyst behind inspiring harp players to develop the techniques on the harmonica for their bag of tricks?
Any Examples will be not only enlightening but very educational :)
Last Edited by Frank on Mar 20, 2013 8:57 AM
Frank! I came up with throat bending a few weeks ago. Word is getting out. I'm also working on double stops with one of the holes overblow, double stops with both holes overblow, warbles with one of the holes overblow,warbles with both holes overblow,...same as previous 4 but with overdraws. Just between you and me Frank I have a couple harps that will play the chord 4,5,6, overblow...but I can't figure out where to use it. The double stops with one OB are coolest. You can bend it up and play a double stop, but with both holes playing the same pitch. In cross harp 5 OB bent up 1/2 step and 6 blow are the same tonic pitch. Powerful and cool! Of course none of this would be possible without my recent invention of throat bending.
I was inspired by watching a guy play two trumpets at the same time.
p.s....all these techniques can be done with or without throat vibrato.
Thats way cool H'dude, but I've been workin on something that'll blow you all away; arse bending. I can squeeze down on those notes with just the right amount of tension that I get perfect pitch on the overblows. Just gotta watch out for the follow through sometimes. ;) ---------- Lucky Lester
Last Edited by didjcripey on Mar 20, 2013 9:07 PM
I'm sorry, but I was talking about "fartomonica" overblows at least as far back as 2009. It happened to be on an other forum, but it is still there for "posterity."
didjcripey, haven't you seen the 'Practice your forum skills' thread? N.O.D. posted a picture of someone (maybe himself) practicing that very technique a couple years back. It's still in the thread.
Nice posting. I always enjoy running into someone else on the same path..
Here is how I describe your effect to students:
Imagine you have 10 units of usable energy at any given time. This energy is parceled out to see, hear, think and move.
The more efficiently you use your allotted energy moment to moment, the better results you achieve for whatever you wish to accomplish.
Playing harmonica....student may be using 3 units to breathe, 2 units to think, 4 units on tensing up shoulder/neck/arm/lip throat muscles, leaving only 1 unit left to devote to listening to the resulting sound.
Those 4 units of energy wasted on tightening of the muscle impulses can be regained by learning to relax and not engage musculature unnecessary in achieving the final result.
Learning to relax shoulders/neck/arms/lip and throat muscles results in a recouping of these 4 units of energy that can be redistributed to your ears for listening to yourself and/or perhaps another unit of energy allotted towards your brain or heart to think about or feel more of the music and how you engage in creating it.
I once had a terrible fear reaction to bees and yellow jackets until the day I decided to lie down under a tree branch that held a large hive. At first I was using all 10 units of energy to freak out and tense my whole body as I looked up at the swarming insects.
However, I talked myself into relaxing one muscle at a time while breathing deeply.
Eventually, I regained these 10 units of energy and was able to channel them into listening and watching the bees with interest, totally relaxed - not easily, mind you, but I was resolved to break my fear.
So, to this day, I don't react with jump fear when a bee or yellow jacket comes near me, but rather am relaxed and curious - a much better way to keep the bee and myself unstung and happy. ---------- The Iceman
I'm an outdoorsman, gardener, grew up outside and have worked a lot in landscaping when I was younger...Thank God I'm not allergic to those buggers - I've been stung on numerous occasions "OUCH" and even chased by swarms of them a couple of times. They are incredible creatures especially the honey bee - the amount of flowers they need to hit up to make a little honey is astounding :)
Last Edited by Frank on Mar 22, 2013 10:06 AM
I`ll bet that techniques on blues harp come out of Hoo-Doo ! and Black gospel field hollers it sure isn`t from european harmony.A singing call and responce thing ,before chords to be used...
I urge you ALL to check out a CD called Africa and the Blues (available in Spotify). It seems that there is a distant yet distinguishable "lineage" from African panpipe and cattle herding horn playing all the way to the Afro-American harmonica styles. You can compare sound examples on that CD between pipes and harp. They do share certain tonal characteristics, plus of course effects like whooping.
Paul Oliver has stated that harmonica probably gradually took quills' place as it was more reliable, durable and easier to come by. Early harmonica players were probably emulating panpipe styles at least to some extent.
Edit: more info on the quills and its ancestors -> http://www.sohl.com/Quills/Quills.htm
Maybe hearsay, but I heard that the "cough technique" was first invented by a smoker. Joe Camel doesn't recommend starting smoking to learn the technique though!
