Boyd - I have always taught "If you can't sing it, you can't make the harmonica play it". As to 3rd hole inhale second bend, you also have to get that note firmly in your inner ear before you can tell the harmonica how to play it. So much depends on what you already have inside you. Once you learn basic techniques, it becomes easy to tell the harmonica what to do.
Thanks and that's what I do now sing it count it out. On the third hole I make the vowel sounds in my head. But for many years I was doing the draw notes to hard. Now I'm correcting that. Hard to get red of bad habits. Thanks for your comment that really helps. Now I know you can't just pick the harmonica and start playing it.
Hey everyone - In case you don't already know it, here at SJ, you get the added benifit of having a great player and teacher monitoring all of us!!! The Iceman is a bad man himself on the harp AND he knows how to teach - Pay attention!
Harvey...if you are consistently blowing out 5 hole inhale, you are trying to bend it down "through the floor", or exceeding the force necessary to bend and stressing out the reed.
Revisit your technique and lighten up a bit. It's not force, but finesse.
re: bending while TB'ing...Harvey is having trouble with the 5 inhale bend. I have a different perception to what Rick posted in response.
I find that bending is instigated by a raising of the tongue - not at the front, but towards the back - in the area near where the tongue arcs up when you phoneticize "K".
You can keep the tip of the tongue on the harmonica a la TB and still raise that back portion of the tongue. It's finding the exact spot that takes a minute, but once you lock into it, the bend is easy.
The fact that you believe it takes a lot of pressure on that 5 inhale bend in order to bend it towards the floor tells me you should rethink your bending technique.
Hole 5 inhale affords only a shallow bend and the "note room" here is kinda like a very small "note closet" - maybe 4 feet tall, where the floor is not very far from the ceiling.
Inhale bending doesn't come from "force", but just a positioning of the tongue through arching. Once you understand where and how much to arch your tongue up (in its' middle section), you will find that you can bend without pulling in a lot of air.
Since it is the mid section of the tongue that arches up, the tip of the tongue is not engaged in any way. Therefore, whether it rests on the harmonica a la TB or just lays at the bottom of the mouth through single note playing doesn't really matter.
Soaring to that 5 hole inhale....you are not making it "sharp".
Imagine that each note "lives" in a small room (like a closet). When you let the note play at its highest point, that is playing the note at the ceiling. (If you have a helium balloon in the closet with you and you let go of the string, that balloon will rise to the ceiling. Can't go any further up).
When you bend that note down as far as it will go, that is playing the note at the floor. (Imagine taking that helium balloon, pulling on the string until you can get your hand on top of it and moving it down till it hits the floor. You can't go any lower than that floor. If you try, that balloon will squash out and eventually burst).
There is also a point when you feel the balloon at the floor start to resist your downward pushing. You can develop a feel for this in your mouth when you bend down...that slight bit of resistance when you hit the floor.
In listening to Rick play, it is obvious he knows where that floor is. The secret is that when you bend a note to the floor, it is actually almost 1/4 tone flat to the proper pitch. Advanced players will aim for about 1 foot off the floor to create a note at pitch. Of course, in blues, it is also ok to play with that note and go right down to the floor for moaning effects.
However, if you try to play the note past that floor, you will stress out the reed and it will eventually go flat. Try to develop your feeling in the mouth to resist "squashing the ballon into the floor".
Thanks, Iceman, for that helpful analogy. I am working on the V chord of Chicago Shuffle, and it not only demands moving up and down that closet of pitches but getting them right with the groove, too. It's a challenge. But let me ask this. Should all this bending be happening from the tongue blocked position? I can sort of do it with my lips, but soaring that five draw bend tongue blocked and then taking it to just above the floor demands a lot of pressure to get the kind of tone that seems effortlessly to emerge from Rick's harp. I'm not sure I got the chops. Help!
Manipulating the listening audience?? BUT OF COURSE. This is what makes them want to come back. (Think of a roller coaster ride...mechanically, the design manipulates the rider's emotions, but it's fun and people want to experience it again and again).
Rick gives you the gold.... be the groove. When you play a solo shuffle, the listener should be able to easily imagine a drummer as well as the rest of a band playing along with you.
Liked the harmonica tone of the performance. Since it was a low volume, I would be interested in the equipment Rick used. Sounds like a small amp.
Hey Larry - I was playing through an old champ - one knob for on/off/volume - and Larry, thanks for all your input here on Sonic Junction. For those of you who don't know him, Larry's a great player and a past president of SPAH - AND he makes a wicked tapenade!
Wow. Dennis captured the spirit of Big Walter on this one.
Thanks Larry!
Boyd - scat sing, la la la, dum de dum...just choose one. Important thing is to reproduce the notes with your voice.
Boyd - I have always taught "If you can't sing it, you can't make the harmonica play it". As to 3rd hole inhale second bend, you also have to get that note firmly in your inner ear before you can tell the harmonica how to play it. So much depends on what you already have inside you. Once you learn basic techniques, it becomes easy to tell the harmonica what to do.
Thanks and that's what I do now sing it count it out. On the third hole I make the vowel sounds in my head. But for many years I was doing the draw notes to hard. Now I'm correcting that. Hard to get red of bad habits. Thanks for your comment that really helps. Now I know you can't just pick the harmonica and start playing it.
ooh, time to "own" that 3 hole inale second bend as a solid note with this one!
Torture for Rick - place him in a straight jacket, nail his feet to the floor and put him on stage with a groovin' blues band.
Rick's body English is an indication that he lives/breathes/plays the groove - oops, sorry, I mean the groove plays Rick!
This is as important as learning to play blues harmonica, IMO.
Hey everyone - In case you don't already know it, here at SJ, you get the added benifit of having a great player and teacher monitoring all of us!!! The Iceman is a bad man himself on the harp AND he knows how to teach - Pay attention!
Harvey...if you are consistently blowing out 5 hole inhale, you are trying to bend it down "through the floor", or exceeding the force necessary to bend and stressing out the reed.
Revisit your technique and lighten up a bit. It's not force, but finesse.
re: bending while TB'ing...Harvey is having trouble with the 5 inhale bend. I have a different perception to what Rick posted in response.
I find that bending is instigated by a raising of the tongue - not at the front, but towards the back - in the area near where the tongue arcs up when you phoneticize "K".
You can keep the tip of the tongue on the harmonica a la TB and still raise that back portion of the tongue. It's finding the exact spot that takes a minute, but once you lock into it, the bend is easy.
Harvey Kail...
The fact that you believe it takes a lot of pressure on that 5 inhale bend in order to bend it towards the floor tells me you should rethink your bending technique.
Hole 5 inhale affords only a shallow bend and the "note room" here is kinda like a very small "note closet" - maybe 4 feet tall, where the floor is not very far from the ceiling.
Inhale bending doesn't come from "force", but just a positioning of the tongue through arching. Once you understand where and how much to arch your tongue up (in its' middle section), you will find that you can bend without pulling in a lot of air.
Since it is the mid section of the tongue that arches up, the tip of the tongue is not engaged in any way. Therefore, whether it rests on the harmonica a la TB or just lays at the bottom of the mouth through single note playing doesn't really matter.
Cool solo w/Clapton, for sure....but even cooler shoes.
"It sounds a little tricky....but it's cool."
yeah
"Sometimes it's cooler - not to."
ya. "Put a burr on it and make it sound important"!
Soaring to that 5 hole inhale....you are not making it "sharp".
Imagine that each note "lives" in a small room (like a closet). When you let the note play at its highest point, that is playing the note at the ceiling. (If you have a helium balloon in the closet with you and you let go of the string, that balloon will rise to the ceiling. Can't go any further up).
When you bend that note down as far as it will go, that is playing the note at the floor. (Imagine taking that helium balloon, pulling on the string until you can get your hand on top of it and moving it down till it hits the floor. You can't go any lower than that floor. If you try, that balloon will squash out and eventually burst).
There is also a point when you feel the balloon at the floor start to resist your downward pushing. You can develop a feel for this in your mouth when you bend down...that slight bit of resistance when you hit the floor.
In listening to Rick play, it is obvious he knows where that floor is. The secret is that when you bend a note to the floor, it is actually almost 1/4 tone flat to the proper pitch. Advanced players will aim for about 1 foot off the floor to create a note at pitch. Of course, in blues, it is also ok to play with that note and go right down to the floor for moaning effects.
However, if you try to play the note past that floor, you will stress out the reed and it will eventually go flat. Try to develop your feeling in the mouth to resist "squashing the ballon into the floor".
Thanks, Iceman, for that helpful analogy. I am working on the V chord of Chicago Shuffle, and it not only demands moving up and down that closet of pitches but getting them right with the groove, too. It's a challenge. But let me ask this. Should all this bending be happening from the tongue blocked position? I can sort of do it with my lips, but soaring that five draw bend tongue blocked and then taking it to just above the floor demands a lot of pressure to get the kind of tone that seems effortlessly to emerge from Rick's harp. I'm not sure I got the chops. Help!
Harvey
Hardly ever covered in most blues harmonica tutorials is that groove happenin' between the main ideas.
Of course we all want to nail the notes, but without that momentum (as aptly described by Rick), you will miss out on all the fun.
Nice watch, Rick, btw...
Thanks Larry! Glad you dig the watch!!! (Great to see you last month BTW)
Manipulating the listening audience?? BUT OF COURSE. This is what makes them want to come back. (Think of a roller coaster ride...mechanically, the design manipulates the rider's emotions, but it's fun and people want to experience it again and again).
Rick gives you the gold.... be the groove. When you play a solo shuffle, the listener should be able to easily imagine a drummer as well as the rest of a band playing along with you.
Liked the harmonica tone of the performance. Since it was a low volume, I would be interested in the equipment Rick used. Sounds like a small amp.
Hey Larry - I was playing through an old champ - one knob for on/off/volume - and Larry, thanks for all your input here on Sonic Junction. For those of you who don't know him, Larry's a great player and a past president of SPAH - AND he makes a wicked tapenade!