Re: [Harp-L] Throat Vibrato Pulse Speed

[icemanle@xxxxxxx]

 this was one piece of technique to work on for a total control of the instrument. 

Try to see how slow you can pulse - when you get it down to once/second, it will reveal the muscles needed to accomplish a single pulse. Now, try to focus on exactly only what is needed, eliminating any bundled habitual extra musculature. With this understanding, next try to relax as much as possible, minimizing the muscle impulses needed until it is as natural as breathing. Then, rebuild, starting to increase your pulse speed slowly.

You may reach a ceiling to just how fast you can control the pulse. Don't spend time trying to crash through your ceiling. Accept the fact that that is your limitation at this point (sometimes the individual has a muscle limitation - for instance, I can't sideways tongue switch very fast while others are like machine guns). Then roll this into your technique to be used w/out much effort and see how far you get creating your own sound. 

You will find a measured controlled vibrato and also an unmeasured one - both can be used effectively. 

I find a slow measured one is very comfortable for me in a lot of cases and works towards my individual sound.

 


 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: sam Blancato <samblancato@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: Harp-L <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sun, Feb 14, 2010 12:19 am
Subject: [Harp-L] Throat Vibrato Pulse Speed


Hey Folks,

For those of you who can do throat vibrato I have a question.  As you know,
when playing a note or a chord with throat vibrato (TV), you play it with a
'pulse' (a tempo) at which you modulate the pitch.  Another way to say this
is that you cause the pitch to waver at a certain speed.  And you also
probably know that the TV sounds more effective when you can control the
pulse so that this matches the tempo of the song you're playing.  

So what I'm wondering is what kind of exercises I can do to develop a fast
pulse and more than this, to get any speed I want.  On a song with a 4/4
time at a metronome tempo of 92 I can get a 16th note tempo.  That's about
as fast as I can pulse TV.  This sounds fast but it really isn't.  It's not
that slow either and I can match TV tempos to a lot of songs up to that
speed.  I'd like to be able to do it faster, maybe 16ths at 108 or 112.  

Has anybody worked on this with drills and what not?  Has anybody tried to
work on this specific thing as opposed to just developing greater speed and
control over time without conscious effort?  When I try to get 16ths over 92
it seems like my muscles won't go any faster.  Sometimes I wonder if this is
some sort of set thing, like there's a threshold one can't get past.

Sam Blancato, Pittsburgh  

P.S.  Over-blowers can ignore this inquiry.  I'm sure I wouldn't be able to
appreciate your crazy, twisted perspective on anything; it would probably
give me a head ache too.  And anyway, I wouldn't want to take you away from
your Schoenberg records and tongue yoga and what ever other M.C. Escher-like
stuff you all do.