[Harp-L] What happens when bending

["Rick Dempster" <rick.dempster@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I forget to mention the pharynx. (I've had some minor health problems lately, which have taken me to the ear nose & throat dept. at our 'Eye & Ear' hospital, where I have taken the opportunity to quiz the specialist - who gave me quizzical looks haha - on harp-related anatomical matters, the pharynx, or soft palate, in  particular)
The pharynx operates as a valve which controls flow of air, mucous etc from nose to throat and vice-versa.
You must close the pharynx in order to bend a note, and you must open it to un-bend (or if not 'must', then, for my part I'd say that's what I do; in fact, closing the pharynx will almost certainly activate a bend, if everything else is positioned correctly, and to open it while bending will certainly release the bend)
I have my students concentrate on the pharynx as a tool in breath control (which is to the harp what the picking hand is to the guitar, and the bowing hand/arm to the fiddle)
Particularly for folk who can't get a clear sound on draw two, and always tend to bend it somewhat, either getting a flat note, or simply a 'jammed reed'.
I tell them to try letting some air through their nose while they are drawing. Sometimes the result is very funny, with all sorts of audible 'snorks' emanating from the surprised and embarrassed student.
I think the pharynx does nothing more than seal the ventilation of the throat/mouth to enable full control of air pressure; but nothing more.
But then again I might just be a Bulldog crossed with a Shitszu.....

RD

John;
         I reckon I'm a 75%-of-the-time tongue blocker too. I was trying to keep things simple here, and not to expose my ignorance of my own anatomy. What I believe is that the tongue extends right down the throat and is connected somehow to the larynx. I think that when I am tongue-blocking, the back of the tongue and the larynx (or Adam's apple, to make it more visual) work (how exactly, I'm not sure) too open and extend the  resonating chamber, by deepening and perhaps broadening the resonating chamber.
         I would equate resonant chamber size with reed length and weight, and air pressure with reed oscillation speed.

Regards,
RD

>>> "John F. Potts" <hvyj@xxxxxxx> 7/10/2008 12:24 >>>
Rick,
	Everything you say makes perfect sense to me EXCEPT the role you  
attribute to the tongue--"that the tongue works to change the size of  
the resonating chamber."  If that were actually so, how is it that a  
full time tongue blocker is able to bend?

	Minor point:  After reading Steve Baker's post, i looked up what the  
"pharynx" is, and it seems to me that it may actually  the pharynx,  
rather than the larynx (or, perhaps, both) that are involved,  But my  
experience is very much consistent with what you describe as  
constricting ("choking") the air flow. That's a very good way to  
describe what i think my "throat" is doing (not that i am the  
standard by which technique should be judged).


JP