Dirty-South Blues Harp Forum: For blues harmonica players, students, and fans

Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! > What is Sonny Doing to the back of that harp?

What is Sonny Doing to the back of that harp?

Page: 1

nacoran 1151 posts Feb 17, 2010 11:09 AM	At about 3:21 he starts fiddling with the back of his harp with his fingers, like maybe he is stopping reeds or something.
Doggycam 15 posts Feb 17, 2010 11:37 AM	He's not stopping the reeds. Putting your fingers there alters the tone slightly. Taking some of the shrillness out of the high end. Sonny terry did this often too, but not just up the high end. Both, acoustic players, using everything available to get more colours on their palette.
barbequebob 492 posts Feb 17, 2010 1:54 PM	I used to see Big Walter do that a lot too. Too many players often don't make particularly good use of their hands in order to shape their sound. ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
scottb 108 posts Feb 17, 2010 2:27 PM	I think he's making people think "What's he doing with his fingers like that?"
nacoran 1154 posts Feb 17, 2010 4:11 PM	I thought maybe on one of those old prewar harps maybe he was stopping the blow reed to help with a bend. It sounds like he actually misses at 3:30.

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