RE: [Harp-L] Tone difficulties

["Bob Cohen" <bcohen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> then I start to lose it.  Does anyone have any suggestions 
> for dealing with this problem?  

IMHO acoustic tone comes from keeping the back of your throat open and
from pushing the air from your diaphragm.  Anything that interferes with
this "effects chain" (as it were) will affect your tone.  Do you play
for 20 minutes straight with no break?  Perhaps switching the harps lets
you unconsciously relax which opens the back of your throat which
fattens your tone.  

You might consider doing a vocal exercise to warm up your throat and
teach you how to open your embouchure.  Get a harp in whatever key
you're comfortable singing in.  Get a bit of a paper towel.  Play the
scale from the 4 hole so that the notes are fresh in your mind.  Stick
out your tongue.  Gently hold it with the paper towel.  Open your mouth
wide but not so wide that you're straining.  Using an "ah" vocalization,
sing the scale up and down.

E.g. (Sing "Ah" not the syllables),

Ah Ah Ah Ah Ah Ah Ah Ah  Ah Ah Ah Ah Ah Ah Ah Ah
Do Re Me Fa So La Ti Do  Do Ti La So Fa Me Re Do

If you want to get fancy, you can throw in the arpeggios and change keys
up and down.  This, by the way, is also great for ear training.  Push
the notes from your diaphragm. Don't push with your throat.  You'll know
you're breathing correctly when your belly rises during inhalations
rather than your chest.  The purpose of this exercise is to help you
open up.

To practice making the space in your mouth cavity as large as possible,
you can also do the same thing with your mouth closed.  Pretend that
you've got a really hot bit of food on your tongue sing the scales with
the "ah" vocalization.

Hope this Helps

Bob Cohen