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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
Making discoveries about my playing progress.
Making discoveries about my playing progress.
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rpavich
58 posts
Jul 03, 2013
3:51 PM
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As I've said before here, I'm a noob harmonica player but I've been playing guitar for almost all of my adult life. I'm 53 and I started when I was about 10 or so. Not that I'm 43 years good or anything but having that background gives me a unique perspective on learning the harp.
Example: I was just messing around and cupping it in my hand while playing and adjusting my grip...when I noticed all of a sudden my tone improved a LOT!...I hadn't realized how many "holes" I had in my grip and how thin my tone was!
When I made an effort to get rid of them, my tone improved a lot. It's one of those things you read, and people say but it has to hit home to sink in I guess...
Interesting!
It sort of reminds me of guitar practice...you don't learn in a linear fashion....you learn in sort of a stair-step sort of a fashion...few steps forward...plateau...realization, step forward...plateau...etc.
At least it was that way for me...
It's an interesting journey for sure.
Last Edited by rpavich on Jul 03, 2013 3:53 PM
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arzajac
1093 posts
Jul 03, 2013
7:23 PM
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It's been the same for me. And it has spilled over into other areas of my life.
You mention tone. I found that despite the huge amount of educational material relating to tone that has been available to me, the single most significant thing that has allowed me to improve was to simply hear it, to appreciate it.
As you say, you hit that deep tone once and you notice it's there! It's actually hard to ignore it after that. The bar is set. Wanting it all the time is the driving force. You almost don't need the educational how-to's. You know when it works and when it doesn't and you just keep on doing whatever it is you need to do to "get it" on demand.
As I mentioned, that has spilled over into other areas of my life. My kids are (too) smart and are world-class experts at pushing my buttons. I lose patience with them all the time. But the one time I was able to keep my cool I realised it was exactly like the harp. I had just done something significant (kept my cool) and I want to keep doing it.
Just like all of the little bits and pieces of harp skills I have chipped away at, I decided I wanted to chip away at this patience thing. And it's working. Had it not been for the harp taking me down that road before, I probably would not be working on being more patient with my kids today - not effectively anyway.
Few steps, plateau.... and so on...
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Custom overblow harps. Harmonica service and repair.
Last Edited by arzajac on Jul 03, 2013 7:25 PM
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JInx
462 posts
Jul 04, 2013
6:46 AM
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yep, that's how i see it as well
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Sun, sun, sun
Burn, burn, burn
Soon, soon, soon
Moon, moon, moon
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FMWoodeye
713 posts
Jul 04, 2013
7:01 AM
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It's called a Helmholtz reverberation chamber after German physicist Hermann Ludwig von Helmholtz, Nobel Prize winner. Some African a couple thousand years ago invented (or discovered) it. Helmholtz did the "book l'arnin'" part, wrote the equation and such. Harp players don't use the equation much. They just say, "Hold it like this."
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FMWoodeye
714 posts
Jul 04, 2013
7:04 AM
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Many of us played other instruments before taking up harp, trombone and other brass in my case. The experience is invaluable in many ways.
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