Re: [Harp-L] Throat Vibrato on Bent Notes

[Pierre <plavio@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Before working on vibrato too much, make absolutely and positively sure you 
can control the 3 hole bend on a C harp perfectly. By that I mean that you 
should be able to bend very slowly the whole range of the 3 hole (at least 
one whole step). Make sure there are no frequency jumps or weak sounding 
spots, also make sure you have good fat and bright tone all the way down. 
Its typical that amateurs cannot do the one half step bend on the 3 hole. I 
highly suggest that you you get the Bendometer (free for a month) or use a 
tuner.

BTW, to get good tone on the 3 hole, you must open your throat wide and draw 
from the tummy. Took me several months of practice to get decent tone on the 
3 hole.

BTW BTW to stabilize the Bb note which wants to go to A, practice vibrato 
just around the Bb, eventually your control of that notes will get better 
without the vibrato,

Lately I have been practicing doing vibrato by focusing on changing vowel 
sounds as in going from "o" to "ou" or "a" to "ou" or "a" to "e", lots of 
other sounds work too llike "ah". Experiment with this kind of shapings. I'm 
trying to do like Chris who apparently moves the tip of his tongue back and 
forth.

I thing the hardest thing, is to get a proper sine wave. Once you get a good 
slow sine wave, speed it up slowly but never go beyond the point where the 
sine wave starts turning into a square wave. That way you are learning the 
right thing, otherwise you end up practicing square vibrato which is not 
what you want. Practice with slow tunes as much as possible (amazing grace) 
that will allow you to calm down.

The other thing to practice is shallow and deep bends. For me deeper is 
easier, but quarter bends is what I want.

Happy woodshedding,

Pierre.








----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tony Renshaw" <tonyrenshaw@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Saturday, April 23, 2005 8:50 PM
Subject: [Harp-L] Throat Vibrato on Bent Notes


> I am after advice as to whether I should persist with working on throat 
> vibrato on bent notes, or whether I should rely on hand vibrato for these? 
> I am unsure whether I can still get a good hand vibrato when playing 
> amplified with a microphone in my cup,  as I am not at that stage yet, but 
> wish to have all the skills applicable for when the time comes. All advice, 
> except give up greatfully received.
> Reg
> Tony Renshaw
> Sydney Australia
>
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