|
Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
Saxophone or harmonica? or both?
Saxophone or harmonica? or both?
Page:
1
nick cavill
6 posts
Jun 16, 2015
7:06 AM
|
after some recent posts where I got some great help I thought I would just share some thoughts.
I play saxophone (mainly tenor) in a covers band and recently took up harp again to add some variation. This got me thinking about the similarities:
- they are both reed instruments
- they are both primarily solo instruments (ie used mainly for solos, though of course the harp can keep the rhythm going pretty well too)
- they both can sound very very cool in the right hands
- they both can sound awful in the wrong hands. Think foghorn for sax and kid's toy for harp
- they both need a lot of focus on breathing and embrochure
- to play them well needs a lifetime of practice and dedication
and then the differences:
- harps are a whole lot easier to carry around. I never took my sax camping
- the sax has all the notes at your fingertips (well, 2 1/2 octaves to begin with before getting into overtones) while the harp needs some serious study to find and control all the bends
- the approach to vibrato is entirely different. Sax players use jaw vibrato which does not work on a harp
- the sax seems to me to have more expressive possibilities (though this statement may reveal my basic approach to playing harp)
- the sax seems almost universally popular. Many many people say 'ooh I LOVE the sound of the saxophone'. They don't tend to say that about the harmonica...
- finally - at the risk of offending some of the cool harpists out there - doesn't the saxophone look a lot cooler on stage? Have you ever had a look from someone in the audience who is obviously thinking 'what is that guy doing with his hands and that microphone? '
any other thoughts?!
|
STME58
1332 posts
Jun 16, 2015
8:00 AM
|
reference The saxophone is a conical instrument, unlike the clarinet which is cylindrical. This makes the sax much more responsive to what you do with your vocal tract. This is yet another similarity between the sax and harmonica. I am not a sax player but I think the expressive possibilities of the two instruments are similar. I really enjoy the broad range of timbre you can get out of a harp. I don't know about sax, but the harp is much easier to sing though (ala Wade Schumann) to get extra notes in your chord than a brass instrument is.
I disagree about the use of jaw vibrato on the harp. My first instrument is trombone, and the jaw vibrato I use on trombone works on the harp. Perhaps it is different from sax jaw vibrato, but lowering you jaw changes the volume of the oral cavity and will effect the pitch and timber of the harp.
The harmonica is underrated as a teaching tool. Being diatonic, it teaches you the relationship between keys and modes far better than a chromatic instrument can.
Have you seen the Xaphoon? It is a sax like instrument small and cheap enough to carry around. Not quite as portable or economical as the harp though.
|
dougharps
943 posts
Jun 16, 2015
8:45 AM
|
In light of this post I wanted to mention Michael Peloquin, at
harpsax.com
A good player who is worth checking out...
----------
Doug S.
|
Mahcks
43 posts
Jun 16, 2015
9:56 AM
|
I just picked up my first sax last month! This instrument is a beast. Haven't gotten to scales yet. I'm still trying to play root notes instead of accidentally getting overtones.
I want to say I saw a video of Brendan Power and Howard Levy jamming and hanging out. They brought up vibrato and how the jaw can play an important part in that. The difference is (and correct me if I'm wrong); on sax, your jaw is changing the pressure on the reed directly, while on a harp your jaw is primarily moving the back of the tongue to alter the resonance of your mouth.
|
barbequebob
2949 posts
Jun 16, 2015
10:35 AM
|
@nick cavill -- To do a good throat vibrato on harmonica, in many ways, the technique is similar to the way a vocalist would approach it and what I've learned over the years is that if you take time and learn vocals, especially from a reputable vocal coach, many of the teachings that goes into good vocal skills often easily translates into harmonica, the the difference is that you may have "reverse" some things because with vocals, much like a horn, is all blow breaths, but with harmonica is BOTH blow and draw breaths.
I've also met players who do their vibrato strictly by by the use of the diaphragm muscles rather than the throat, and one of the greatest classical/pop chromatic players absolutely HATED the throat vibrato and what he did was use the pucker method for single hole play and then do a sort of a thing (for a lack of a better term) a tongue roll/flutter to achieve it, kinda like saying la-la-la-la through the instrument, which also reminds me that you can also change the tone of the instrument by the way you manipulate your embouchure as well as the inside shape of your mouth or both, and the average player never learns how to do that.
One other thing that you cannot do on a sax that you can on a harmonica is shape the sounds with your hands, especially when playing acoustic harp (however, TRUE acoustic harp is NOT tight cupping any microphone and just playing without any distortion, which to be brutally honest about it, is still amplified harp just without the distortion because part of true acoustic harp technique is the use of the hands, even down to one or two fingers to manipulate the sound).
For me, if you want cool as a sax player (or a harp player for that matter), you just don't stand on stage like a absolute total stiff, but move around do the kinds of stuff the old jump blues/bar honker sax guys did, like walking around the place and then going down on bended knee a arch all the way back until your head almost hits the floor and Big Jay McNeely and Junior Walker tipified that.
One thing I should mention as a difference between harmonica and sax is that you don't need anywhere near the amount of breath force to play harmonica well as you would with horns and just like horns and vocals, the importance of breath control can NEVER be overstated.
----------
Sincerely,
Barbeque Bob Maglinte
Boston, MA
http://www.barbequebob.com
CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
Last Edited by barbequebob on Jun 16, 2015 10:42 AM
|
Greg Heumann
3021 posts
Jun 17, 2015
7:50 AM
|
I play both. I love both. Playing sax had made be a better accompanist as a harp player. Playing harp has made me a better soloist as a sax player. Its all good.
----------
***************************************************
/Greg
BlowsMeAway Productions
See my Customer Mics album on Facebook
Bluestate on iTunes
|
Post a Message
|
