Re: vibrato

["ozharp" <ozharp@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

John Thaden writes:

> Interesting, G.  But this is but one of three "throat vibrato"
> techniques that have been described on Harp-L.  Another has  been
> taught as being a variation on saying "oi yoi yoi yoi", and a third
> as being a series of little coughs, or like saying "uh uh uh uh".
> Contrasting these is diaphragm vibrato, which has been described as
> being like saying "huh huh huh huh".

Isn't the 'yoi yoi yoi' approach more of a description of a 'tongue vibrato'
like Larry Adler used, since it is the tongue doing the yoi yoi yoi-ing?

The approach I used to learn throat vibrato is that taught by the late Jerry
Murad. First start out by playing long unbroken notes while counting a slow
beat. Then start subtly accenting each beat by doing a gentle 'uh' in the
throat, not enough to cause a seperation of the the long note as you would
with a staccato, but just enough to cause an audible 'pulse'. When you have
that going smoothly, increase it to 2 'pulses' per beat while maintaining
the same tempo. Then increase it to 3, 4, and then 5 'pulses' per beat. In
the beginning one will probably find that they are inadvertently seperating
the note with each pulse, but with practice the pulses will become more
subtle, eventually resulting in the smooth vibrato that Murad was truly a
master of. Most players find it easiest to learn the throat vibrato on notes
around hole 4 on a C chromatic. The lower the pitch of the note, the lower
in the throat the 'uh' has to come from, and the wider the throat needs to
be. When I do a throat vibrato in the top octave I find that the 'uh's are
coming from the top of my throat, and it is a little more constricted than
on the lower notes.

I can only say that this works for me, and many players have complimented me
on my throat vibrato (not the best throat vibrato they've ever heard in
their lives, but good enough to receive compliments)

Cheers,

Paul




>
> This is an area of technicianship where the present terms are
> inadequate.  New terms would help.
>
> Of course, these descriptions don't quite cover what goes on for draw
> note, since people don't usually speak while breathing in, but it
> isn't hard to generalize them to draw notes.
>
> Regards,
> John
>
> On Sun, 9 Feb 2003 19:04:07 +1300, G. wrote:
> >Throat Vibrato: ...
> >Start by simple opening your mouth and using the back of your tongue
> >against your throat to say "K'...K'...K'..." like you're about to
> >say "King" OR "Gh...Gh...Gh..." like you're about to say "Goat" OR
> >"'ch...'ch...'ch" as in the "Lochness Monster".
> >Whatever works best for you. Try to keep a slow rhythm. Practise
> >regularly. When you can keep a constant rhythm going for a half
> >minute or so its time to speed to soften it so that the harsher part
> >of the consonant is lost, but without losing the definition of the
> >vibrato. As you keep practising try to increase your pace. Increase
> >it to a point where you're just about tripping up, and keep at that
> >for a week, and so forth.
> >
> >(Thanks to Paul Farmer for teaching me this technique)
>
> John Thaden
> jjthaden@xxxxxxxxx
> Little Rock, Arkansas USA
>
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