In 2002 I served as guinea pig for a group of medical researchers in the ear, nose & throat department at Hamburg University Hospital who were investigating wind instruments. They stuck an endoscopic camera through my nose and down into the throat in order to film the larynx and pharynx from above while I played. An external camera with sound recording filmed neck and head from the side. On the resulting video it's possible to observe both bending and vibrato from inside the throat. On the basis of this material I would say that although the middle part of the tongue (which we couldn't flm at the same time) clearly must play an important role when bending, the activity definitely continues right down into the pharynx. The vocal folds also play a much greater role than I had anticipated in articulating individual notes as well as creating vibrato. I will be including excerpts from this film in a forthcoming instructional DVD,
Steve
Steve Baker steve@xxxxxxxxxxxxx www.stevebaker.de www.bluesculture.com www.youtube.com/stevebakerbluesharp
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