[Harp-L] Timbre, pitch, intonation

["Haka Harri" <harri.haka@xxxxxxxx>]

Hi everybody,

Every harp player wants to develop skills on an individual path and steps that feel comfortable. I liked the duck whistle metaphor as it is typical of progress in learning how to master this instrument.

But is it necessary to understand what pitch, timbre and intonation mean?
For some players it is and it feels safer to go by the book and really understand what a 2 draw means compared to a 3 blow and how does that fit in with what one has studied in music class. And that is perfectly ok. 

The other approach is not to worry too much about official musical terminology. There was a recent comment on the concern of bends sounding too "bluesy". If you're playing blues harmonica, you should sound that way. Contradictions to conventional musical teaching are more or less expected as long as the overall sound is good.

I believe this is true not only for blues but many other genres of harmonica.

Harri