Re: [Harp-L] Rosco/Alec on OB's/half-bends

["Tim Moyer" <wmharps@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Chris Michalek wrote:
> The trick is to hear the tone in your head and force your body to 
> produce it.  Do you whistle?  Try it but make sure you're doing it 
> in tune, once you get that under control then I think the 
> intonation issues with go away.

I have a similar approach to Chris.  I don't want to pick nits with 
Chris' semantics, but I don't really think he meant "force" it.  I 
prefer to think of it as enabling your body to produce it.  It 
should be a positive experience ;-)

I had an epiphany one day when playing privately in a place that had 
a lot of room resonance ("presence", you might call it).  As I got 
more and more absorbed in my playing, focusing on the intonation of 
each note, I started imagining that I was singing the notes, except 
that instead of my vocal chords producing the initial tones, it was 
the harmonica reeds.  I still used the vocal tract, mouth cavity, 
tongue, etc., to shape each tone and control the pitch.  

At the next gig I played I was approached by a woman who told me she 
was thinking of taking up the harmonica, because it was the closest 
thing she'd seen to singing.  She had years of formal voice training 
and was trying to decide on an instrument to learn.  I considered 
this a validation of my vision, although, obviously, this was a 
deeply personal experience.  

-tim