volume and embrochure

["alciere" <alciere@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I've been practicing playing quietly as recommended by Paul Butterfield in 
his practice CD. Sure there are nuances to playing quiet and it's an 
important skill, but there's another, equally cool sound from blowing really 
hard ala Cotton.You give up a lot of the subtleties but you get a wall of 
sound. So I'm practing both now. It's easier to be out of tune when you blow 
hard.Also, if your tone is thin, blowing hard sounds awful. You have to 
listen carefully when blowing hard. 

Also I'm finding different embrochures lend themselves to different styles 
of playing.I play a lot of hard blues rock. When I'm comping behind the 
guitar player, I like to tongue block. You get the octaves, the slaps, the 
horn section sound. If it's a real wall of sound solo, tongue blocking and 
real hard blowing gets the Marshall at 11 sound, but playing quieter with a 
lip block embrochure gets a nice clear crisp sound that cuts through the 
wall of guitars.Tongue blocking really helped my lip blocking-now I bend in 
the back of the throat. 

So by varying the volume, I can get a radical change in tone from clear and 
articulate to a massive wall of sound. By varying the embrochure, I get a 
lot of technique options.Still, after 30 years, I'm still not satisfied with 
my playing.That's what makes this so much fun. 

Rainbow Jimmy
http://www.spaceanimals.com
http://www.mp3.com/spaceanimals