[Harp-L] Out of the Moment

["John F. Potts" <hvyj@xxxxxxx>]

Ray Beltran writes:

"I categorize players not between embouchure, but rather if they are  
a throat player... or not. Once everything moves back to the throat,  
all bets are off... MOSTLY.
***
But again, overall, it's are you player from your throat.?

I completely agree with everything that Ray is saying.  In my  
experience, the key to tone AND articulation is playing with the  
throat and controlling air flow with the diaphragm.  By this, I mean  
that I do all bending with my throat, not my tongue (or, maybe,  it’s  
actually the root of my tongue which is so far back it feels like  
it's my throat).  I do NOT use my tongue to bend, except for 10 hole  
blow bends (and I hardly ever play those anyway)..

I articulate separation between notes by starting and stopping the  
airflow with my diaphragm.  I do NOT  use my tongue  to get  
separation between notes UNLESS I want a particularly extreme  
staccato effect OR if the music requires that I  use the “rolling the  
Rs” technique because the phrasing of the line I have to play is so  
complex.

Several years ago in my quest for improved tone and after reading  
something in an email promo from David Barrett, I began a conscious  
effort to move everything back farther towards my throat.  After a  
while, I found it became unnecessary to use my tongue for bending  
notes.  And there was a HUGH improvement in my tone.

 Btw, keeping a RELAXED and OPEN throat and a large relaxed oral  
resonance chamber is essential. All air pressure comes from the  
diaphragm.  Then, with just a little tightening or constriction of  
the throat, it is possible to achieve the bend(s) you are after with  
accuracy AND improved tone.  It doesn’t take very much muscle  
movement at all if everything else is sufficiently open and relaxed  
(dropped jaw, yawn like mouth position, etc.).  I learned to do this  
several years ago.

I started articulating clean separation between notes with my  
diaphragm much, much earlier.  I’ve been doing it for quite a while.   
Besides improved tone and EVENNESS of attack, one considerable  
advantage to doing this is SPEED.  Once a player learns how to do it,  
you can articulate clean and precise separation between notes with  
your diaphragm MUCH faster and with greater precision than by using  
your tongue.  And you get a much more consistent attack.

 If one can keep the airway and oral resonance chamber open and  
relaxed while articulating separation with the diaphragm, and bending  
with the throat, playing 16th note or even 32d note runs accurately,  
with proper meter and tempo and precise, clean articulation  becomes  
relatively easy.  I don’t always play that fast, but it’s very useful  
to be able to play lines at the same speed as a sax when you want/ 
need to.

Again, TBing will force the player to develop all of these  
techniques, but, unlike Ray, I learned them BEFORE I became able to  
TB single notes consistently. So, I don’t consider it necessary that  
a player learn to TB in order to develop superior tone and  
technique.  And,  I just can’t play with as much speed when I TB as I  
can when I LP.

Anyway, all of this stuff is actually much easier to do than it is to  
learn   It’s sort of like riding a bicycle:  Once you’ve got it, you  
can hardly believe there was a time you couldn’t do it.

FWIW

JP