Tone

[Robb Bingham <robbingham@xxxxxxxxx>]

Okay. I?,m not letting this go so long as my meaning
is getting twisted [I?m not a quitter- but I?m also
not a masochist]. You? all are welcome to define
~tone~ as you please. If I get one more lecture on
morality- because I claim that we all know what we
mean by ~big fat tone~, I?ll puke. I?ll just repeat my
challenge and sidle off into the shadows [and I won?t
EVEN respond to the hints that I?ve driven innocent
young children from harmonica [Something about ~Hansa
Staedte~, it makes people a little myopic]. Here?s
your challenge:

  If anyone is looking for a way to rebut my claims
  of ~Tone~: tell me how, by  ANY standard or
  opinion, Sugar Ray Norcia or George Harmonica 
  Smith DON?T have great ~Tone~ [because I  
  think it?ll then be clear that you are thinking 
  of some other quality: their style,
  their sound, their oeuvre, their repertoire, 
  their genre, their phrasing, their looks- - - 
  but their ~Tone~ doesn?t come into question. 
  Tell me how someone, in sincerity, 
  could say they have bad tone? And, for those 
  unable to stay within a logical and fair debate; 
  [I didn?t say these guys ALWAYS use these   
  techniques. They don?t].

Some of us had been trying to list the skills you?ll
need to increase your chances of having ~IT~.
[PERIOD]. People, in response, have said all KINDS of
things. But no one has told me that Kim Wilson or
Steve Baker strikes them as having shi*ty tone. No one
responded to the challenge. Instead they pick
something out of context and make some moral argument
about how no one should tell them that one size fits
all [Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It?s true. I want the whole
world to follow only MY definition of tone!
Heh-heh-heh-he-heh!  And then I?m going to melt what?s
left of the polar caps! Curses!] But for those of you
willing to fight fair- and capable of restricting
yourselves to the premises you claimed: the fact that
you can?t call Big Walter?s or [Steve Baker's] tone
tinny and thin is because it has actual
characteristics which are constant [YOU take a couple
lessons from him -and see if YOU don't want to have
his ~Tone~]. Whadya think those constant
characteristics of tone aquistion might be????  

And speaking of cupping; I discovered a great thing
yesterday. If you ever practice in the tub [as I?m
fond of doing] try this: Get your hands pretty wet
[shake them off so they?re not dripping] and get the
best cup you can around a smooth shortharp [I was
using a Suzuki Promaster, but the old Meisterklasses
work good  too]. If you get a tight grip going, the
seal will be so complete that you cannot play one note
without all the others being sucked out of the wrong
end- or no sound at all, but you?ll feel your hands
being pulled in and out- and you?ll know that you have
a great cupping position. If nothing else it teaches
the importance of The Cup to ~your acoustic
undulation~, AND it makes an incredible WAH for your
wa-wah.

Oh. And post-frigging-script; how did my saying ~Hey.
I?m just talking about you and your harp, in the
woodshed working on your Tone~, become, ~Don?t
practice with your gear~???? Talk about axes to grind.
You have to practice with your gear too, of course.
Does no one understand logic anymore? All the steps
have to be there. You can?t just pull out your pet
peeve and start spraying buckshot [uh- and don?t mix
metaphors either :->].

Your servant,
Robb
http://mp3.com/robbingham
[only listen to ~Deal  4 U~. The others have no tone]


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