VS: [Harp-L] Timbre, pitch, intonation

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

Winslow and all,

Not criticizing musical teaching in any way I wanted point out (as I have in previous posts) that in truly good harp playing, nothing can replace a feeling and a talent for this particular art. I believe the same goes for any kind of music and all instruments.  

Training, studies and practicing are definitely worthwhile and always improve your playing. They can bring you from a C student to B+ or even A-. But to be A+, you gotta have that something special which is really hard to define. Think of your favorite players. How many of them got there based only on intensive musical studies and understanding theory? I dare say that not one. 

Harri


Winslow wrote in response to my post:
> "Official msuc terminology" is a way for us to know what the hell the
> other guys is saying when he uses a word. As long as we're going to
> talk about something we might as well agree on what the words mean.
> 
> Good teaching is not a set of prescriptions about what you "should" or
> "should not" do. They're descriptions of how things work. Studying how
> things work can help us to understand how to do the things we want to
> do, and to be aware of (and evaluate) what we're already doing. This
> can both explain why some things don't sound right to us and show us
> pathways to get where we want to go.
> 
> For me, it's not a matter of being safe. It's a matter of 
> being able to
> turn on the light when I want to be able to see where I am. There are
> times when I want to dance with the lights off, and other times when I
> need to stop bumping into the furniture and find the medicine cabinet.
> 
> A comment that a bend is too bluesy has nothing to do with music
> terminology or music theory. It's a comment about style and taste.
> While these can be subjective, again there are appropriate times for
> going with the flow and other times to examine things critically. Most
> of us could benefit from the latter more than we might like to admit.
> 
> I agree, that attempts to impose correctness
> 
> Winslow
> 
> --- Haka Harri <harri.haka@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
> 
> > 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 
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