RE: airtight diatonic cup (was Chro cup; longish)

["mlefree@silverwinggraphics" <mlefree@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Scorcher spoketh:
8<snip>
> I think the advantage is that you have just that
> little extra edge of control, like with a diatonic. I rarely ever cup
> my 'tonic _absolutely_ air-tight - I just use it for effect.

Ah, but why not, ole Scorch?  You obviously know the benefits of cupping an
amplified harp.  (You started this thread dinchya?)  I suggest that there
are corresponding benefits to be gained from a tight hand grip while playing
acoustically.

I've always marveled at the hand effects of such Masters as Walter Horton
and Rice Miller, who played primarily acoustically.  Because my hands are
~far~ smaller than theirs were I had abandoned the idea of having the kind
of grip that allowed them to achieve the incredible wah-wah's, vibratos and
other hand effects that were routine for them.  [If you look closely at
SBWII's grip, you see that at times the finger of the hand in which he holds
the harp overlaps the end of his harp by more than a whole knuckle.  My
fingers won't even reach the end of my harps when I grip them.   And Walter
completely loses a 12-hole harp in his massive meat hooks.]  However I
recently found incentive to work much harder on my grip than I had been.

I can't remember where I posted my experience having Phil Wiggins as a
teacher for several days at a Blues Camp, so I hope I'm not being redundant
here.  One of the major lessons I came away with was the key role Phil's
grip plays in creating his legendary tone.  Phil has worked hard to create a
grip that is as airtight as humanly possible.  He achieves a range of tone
with it that must be witnessed close-up to fully understand and appreciate
the tonal territory at his command.  One of the more amazing things he did
was play a fairly slow and simple version of CC Rider with his harp buried
inside his tightest grip.  Sheesh, I didn't realize a harp could sound like
that!  If you closed your eyes, you'd swear he was playing a muted trombone.

Since my extraordinary time with the Master, one of his lessons that has
yielded the biggest reward  for me is the importance and utility of an
airtight cup.  Because of the difference it has made for me, I'm going to
tell you a little about what I've learned.  First, I now know can't
duplicate Phil's grip--which is, shall I say, a "non-standard" one to say
the least. [Phil's grip, for the sake of this message, resembles that of a
player incorporating a bullet mic' into his/her grip and mashing the result
against his/her face to achieve a seal--except Phil plays acoustically, so
their is no mic'.]  This grip is too uncomfortable for me, but I have made
dramatic tonal improvements afforded by my own standard harp grip through
two slight changes.

One area in which you cannot make an airtight hand grip is between your
thumb and fingers and the instrument.  Your fingers just don't form a
perfectly flat surface against which to grip the harp, so air can leak
between your fingers and the instrument.  So, I tried one of the ideas that
Phil employs--pressing my hand and gripped harp against my lips and face
just firmly enough so that they seal those small open areas alongside the
covers of the harp.  Another aspect of gripping a diatonic that I've often
wondered about and even commented on the harp lists is the way many players
block the upper holes of their harp with their right thumb (assuming a
right-hand grip).  One answer to my on-list queries about this was that such
players use their thumb as a way to indicate the position of specific upper
holes.  I tried it and found that dropping my thumb over the upper holes is
not only a good positional reference, but it's also comfortable.  I accepted
this at face value and didn't think much more about it.  Enter Phil Wiggins
and his amazingly tight cup.  In querying--no, interrogating--Phil, it seems
that one of the important features of his grip is that the harp is
completely enclosed in the space between his (non-standard) hand grip (which
envelops the harp completely) and his face, against which he mashes his hand
grip.  In this way, Phil forms a virtually airtight cup around his harp and
so that there are no opportunities for air to leak backwards out of the
holes not covered by his lips (such as could happen with a standard grip).
When he plays with his grip tightened up, it sounds like his harp is buried
six feet under.  The key thing I realized based on Phil's insights was that
air can leak ~back~ through the holes not covered by my mouth--i.e., those
holes that are obscured by my right thumb.  Now, I no longer hold my thumb
~loosely~ over these holes, but ~tightly~ enough to seal them so that air
cannot leak ~backwards~ through them.  When I press my gripped harp lightly
against my face, I also press my right cheek against my right thumb,
completing the seal there as well.  As Phil does with his grip, I try to
make sure that there are no opportunities for air to leak out of my cup.

Now my acoustic cup, only very slightly changed by these modifications, is
FAR more effective.  Like you mentioned with your taped chrom', Scorch, I
can feel the pressure change inside my cup from blow to draw.  The
dramatically improved cup allows me a far greater range of tone than I ever
before possessed.  My hand vibrato and wah-wahs are far more effective.  I
keep the harp cupped for the entirety of certain slow songs, like Phil does
with his version of CC rider.  I won't tell you ~I~ sound like a muted
trombone, but the results of my new air-tight grip are very pleasing to my
ear.

Scorcher, you and the other harp-ler's might be surprised at the kind of
tonal fruit you can harvest by only slightly altering your harp grip to make
it airtight, guided by Phil Wiggins' wisdom.

Michelle