Re: TB

["Winslow Yerxa" <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>]

- --- In harp-l-archives@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "G. Weiser" <glennw@xxxx> 
wrote:

Winslow said:

>Another technique, called the rake, is more of a wash - everything 
>can mix together. The tongue is not held down on the harp. It moves 
>freely from side to side, raking back and forth across a chord. 
>Rather than excluding notes in a clean, defined way, it just kinds 
of 
>creates texture in a chord, with a fairly random but directional 
>exclusion of notes.


Winslow-

Isn't that the same as a sideways, or lateral tongue flutter?

- -Glenn Weiser
http://www.celticguitarmusic.com/harppage.htm

=======

It is if they both use the same actions. :)

I've never heard the term lateral tongue flutter (perhaps it's in 
your book and I didn't remember). it's more literally descriptive 
than rake except for the flutter part.

Here are the problems I have with the way harmonica players often use 
the term "flutter":

1) It tends to be inaccurate physically

2) It contradicts how other musicians use the term.

When most wind musicians use the term tongue flutter, they mean like 
blowing a raspberry - the tongue essentially acts like a reed. The 
tip of the tongue is set against the roof of the mouth so as to block 
the passage of air. Air is forced past the tongue so that it opens 
enough to let the air past, then snaps shut until the presure build 
up enough to open it again. The player does not choose to open and 
close this aperture each time - its an effect of a force the player 
has set in motion. The rate of opening and closing are not directly 
created by the player, either, they are an effect of the airflow and 
pressure. The player can control the rate only indirectly through 
controlling the airflow. He/she just sets a force in motion and the 
force does the work.

Recently, harmonica players have take to using the term flutter to 
describe a quite different action, in which the player rapidly 
alternates between blocking several holes on the harp with the tongue 
and lifting the tongue to expose all holes enclosed by the 
embouchure. 

This produces an audible effect quite different from the flutter 
tongue effect described above, and it is also not a flutter. Each 
movement of the tongue is directly initiated by the player, instead 
of resulting from a force set in motion by the player. It is quite 
possible to play this type of "flutter" at absurdly slow and 
deliberate speeds - say, two per minute. A true flutter could never 
be performed so slowly because it depends on a dynamic force to set 
it in motion and because it is impossible to directly control each 
individual cycle in the flutter. It is possible to form the habit of 
doing this rapidly without having to think of each motion 
individually, but each individual motion is still in the direct 
control of the player.

I called the rapid repeated repeated tongue lift just that - a tongue 
lift.

I'd be happy to call a rake a lateral tongue wag, as this accurately 
describes the physical action, but rake seems more evocative and is 
easily understood. I believe it also has some general currency. I 
didn't invent it; I recall getting it from Barbecue Bob late one 
night in a car in Cambridge or Boston.

Winslow