[Harp-L] Re: Practicing through the bends

[icemanle@xxxxxxx]

 have never been able to do throat bending - can you describe the technique? I'll give it a try.ÂÂ 

The technique I teach is the result of years of refining and understanding how to get the maximum results with the minimum of muscle movement. It seems to be the essence, in a sense. The results with new students are astounding.

Some that have used throat to bend may find that they are also actually doing what needs to be done w/tongue, but are thinking throat and adding something that may be unnecessary.


Identifying/controlling the bends with tongue position works fineâbut only for players who actually use the tongue to bend.  Those of us who bend with the throat must necessarily employ a different technique.Â
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-----Original Message-----
From: John F. Potts <hvyj@xxxxxxx>
To: icemanle@xxxxxxx
Cc: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Wed, Sep 23, 2009 5:53 pm
Subject: Practicing through the bends 









The Iceman sayeth:Â
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My opinion is that theÂ

essence of bending techniques rests purely in tongue position - throat,Â

jaw etc are kept in the "almost yawn" position, but don't contribute toÂ

the pitch placement. If you will accept this premise, the control is easy to achieve.Â
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Larry,Â
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I do not question the validity of your recommended approach.  But, it doesnât work for those of us who do not use the tongue to bend.  In my experience, bending with the throat produces superior tone 
and control. Once one can drop the 3 Draw 3 half steps (bbb) at will using the throat, separating the lowest 2 (bb and bbb) available bends seems to be a  matter of changing the size and shape of the oral resonance chamber, and separating the Ist and 2d  (b and bb) bends seems to have more to do with the relative depth/shallowness of the bend.  Iâve been using a little Korg electronic chromatic tuner to check pitch as I work at trying to do this with precision and figuring out what to do when in order to be able to hit each of these bends consistently at proper pitch (which is still very much a work in progress).Â
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Identifying/controlling the bends with tongue position works fineâbut only for players who actually use the tongue to bend.  Those of us who bend with the throat must necessarily employ a different technique.Â
Â

JPÂ