Re: Vib/Glue/Misc.

[Jack Ely <IMS_ELY@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

    Re: Misc.
    
    	WELCOME! Joe Fey - My friend and fellow newsletter editor from GHC 
    	Gateway Harmonica Club, St. Louis.
    	
    	WELCOME! Steve Ino - Don't get scared off too soon - this is a GREAT 
    	list! Lots of good stuff.
    
    	HELLO - To the HARP-Ler who knows Paul Farmer in Australia and shares 
    	HARP-L stuff with him. I haven't forgotten Paul's letter and am 
    	working on a reply. Very nice of Paul to follow up with a phone call - 
    	that must have cost some $$.
    	
    Re: Glue for Windsavers (valves).
    
    a) GOODYEAR PLY-O-BOND (sp?) works well. Its potent and very stringy. Some 
    recommend you leave the cap off a day or two until it gets pretty tacky, 
    almost rubbery. Still stringy. One stray almost microscopic strand of this 
    stuff will 'weld' a reed to the reed plate - and it's a bear to remove. 
    Some drying time required.
    
    b) DEVCON 'All Purpose Weldit Cement'. Found at Hartz, Woolworth, (are 
    they all closed now?) - Try similar stores.  What I saw came in a Gray 
    tube on a blister card. Also works very well - and is easier - not so 
    messy to work with. Quick drying you can slap a windsaver on and play 
    immediately! Does not string like PLI-O-BOND, smells the same though.
    
    c) Do any of you OFUG's remember the IBM high speed, line printers that 
    used a paper tape loop for carriage control? They were about 18" long and 
    1.5" wide. You glued these loops together to handle various length forms 
    and vertical spacing. Some of these tapes had a peel off pre-stickum strip 
    on them - the kind of mastic you had to position right the first time, 
    cause you couldn't move it. I cut one to windsaver size and put in on a 
    chromatic - several years ago - it's still there. The paper tape was mylar 
    impregnated - you couldn't tear the stuff unless you had a grip like an 
    orangutan. Now that's how I think windsavers should be made. 
    
    d) Side Note: (This is NOT for windsavers) - SOBO, found in sewing 
    centers, is good for repairing cracked wooden combs. Rubbery - breaths 
    with the wood.
    
    e) Trivia: I once watched Cham-Ber Huang remove and replace an inside 
    windsaver without disassembling his harmonica.
    
    Re: TONGUE BLOCKING/VIBRATO
    
    Shankar Subramaniam <shankar@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes...
    
    8<---
    
    >I'm still struggling with learning to tongue-block and am trying SBW II's 
    >_Keep it To Yourself_. I am having trouble with speed and control while 
    >t-blocking, so much so I am tempted to switch to puckering.
    
    Could be the same problem I had. Relax! you might be trying too hard to 
    get a good seal. Keep your lips supple - it doesn't take a lot of pressure 
    once you get the embouchure down. Tip for beginners: Cover four holes with 
    your lips and then block them ALL so you don't get a sound when you blow. 
    Then gradually allow a little air past the right side of your tongue until 
    you get a note. Make subtle adjustments until you are getting a clear 
    note. Practice playing on the left side after you master the right. Go 
    ahead and perfect your pucker method too - there's a time and place for 
    both.
    
    >Also I find it very hard to get a vibrato with the t-blk.
    >Tips and suggestions from those who are already there please!
    
    I assume you mean (what is usually referred to as) throat vibrato, which 
    is actually controlled by your diaphragm. As opposed to hand vibrato and 
    tongue vibrato. Here is a quick run down on the three...
    
    HAND - Wavering your hands at varying speeds/degrees while cupping the 
    harmonica.
    
    TONGUE - Say "yoy-yoy" while playing. Again varying speed to fit the music 
    or mood.
    
    THROAT (DIAPHRAGM) - Like a little cough-cough-cough. This will gag you 
    and make you cry - especially on the draw notes. If it does, your doing it 
    right. HERE'S AN EXERCISE: Take a narrow strip of paper about 2.5" - 3" 
    long. Hold it vertically about 6" from your face - try to make it waver at 
    a consistent speed by doing the 'cough' exercise. -- Also there is the 
    'Triplet' exercise: [Dang! - this brief description is getting too long].
    Oh well,  Play a note, holding for two beats - (Taaaaa), now using the 
    same time value play (Taaa Taaa), finally Play (Ta Ta Ta) with the same 
    time value (making it a triplet) and smooth out the accents --- All this 
    with the same breath. And remember: Practice-practice-practice like Tim 
    sez.      (Hey Tim, isn't that also how you get to Carnegie Hall?    ;-)
    
    If you have Gopher access I went into little more detail on vibrato, 
    embouchure, single note etc. In my Diatonic Tips. Also should be in the 
    HARP-L archives circa 1993?
    
    Good luck.
    
         Jack Ely - Columbus, Ohio  --New Addr--> IMS_ELY@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx