Re: [Harp-L] RE: How Does William Clarke Do It? Chromatic 6 Hole Draw Wail

[Ben Bouman <fitgo@xxxxxxxxxx>]

It is for sure played on a chromatic. 
He's doing a very strong/fast tongue-blocked vibrato combined with a solid hand wahwah effect. He does this often and it is one of his trademarks to me. 
To do this you also need to be able to cup a mic airtight to get this juicy sound and wahwah effect.



Ben Bouman
www.customharmonicashop.nl
www.harmonicainstituut.nl
www.marble-amps.com

Op 28 aug 2012, om 18:36 heeft David Wilson het volgende geschreven:

> 
> After going back and listening to it, I'm pretty sure Clarke does not switch to a diatonic here - it's still the chromatic.  I can't really give you any pointers on how to get that wail/vibrato on the chromatic, but IMO, it's just a case of William Clarke being able to impose his will on the instrument.  If you listen to Track #4 on the same album, he does essentially the same technique around the 1:52 mark, and I'm pretty sure he's still using the chromatic there as well.
> That's not to say that he never did rapid switching between chromatic and diatonic b/c there are definitely recorded examples of that in addition to the eyewitness accounts.  Just my $0.02, from the perspective of someone who has studied/copied/incorporated William Clarke's playing for many years.
> ==========================================================================Date: Sat, 25 Aug 2012 10:48:03 -0700 (PDT)
> From: ColdRail <gwoodhouse40@xxxxxxx>
> Subject: [Harp-L] How Does William Clarke Do It? Chromatic 6 Hole Draw
> Wail
> To: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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> 
> We all know that the man was an absolute fabulous player but I have a 
> specific question......My band has been playing his great chromatic jump 
> tune "Blowin' Like Hell" and pulling it off pretty well but I can not 
> really get that 6 hole draw bending wail that he plays around 1:11 on the 
> recorded version from his record of the same name. I can get a paltry 
> immitation of it with a little bit of vibrato and shallow bending but I 
> can't seem to get quite enough bend before the reed chokes out. In fact a 
> couple of days ago I was working on this very note and trying different 
> tongue positions, mouth cavity shapes, and pressures and had the reed fail 
> on my CX-12 Bb. I doubt it was just this session that caused the failure 
> but it probably is me trying to wail this note for the last year that 
> shortened the life of this reed. Mr. Clarke employed this same wail in 
> some of his other recorded chromatic tunes. Is there something in the 
> setup (like windsaver removal) that allowed him to get that degree of 
> bending? Is a more traditional Hohner chrom more bendable versus the 
> CX-12? Or is it just the magic that we allow know Bill possessed?
> 
> Thanks, Glenn
> =============================================================================