[Harp-L] Songs for practicing intonation? And Meanderings about Fun.

[JON KIP <jonkip@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Oct 3, 2013, at 5:31 AM, harp-l-request@xxxxxxxxxx wrote:

> Subject: [Harp-L] Songs for practicing intonation?
> 
> 
> Any songs that help playing 3 draw bends to pitch?  Specifically, a
> non-harmonica to play along with?  There has to be a head or motif in a
> song that requires as such.  Thanks!

I think there are two points here. First, the actual hearing of a correct pitch as being correct. Secondly, the way to achieve that pitch.

You don't need an actual tune to work on either of those. Yeah, tunes are fun. Learning the basics.....less fun. (I was fortunate enough to have been born with money, so I hired other people to learn the basics for me, but not everyone has that luxury, for which I am truly sorry, and I do take food to the homeless on thanksgivings of even-numbered years, so I think I'm covered in the Karma Department [take the elevator to the fourth floor, go to the right, just past the Toy Department])

You can simplify things, and really make them intensely boring, by just playing notes and intervals with a keyboard. Play long notes and listen for the beats that show your ears that you're at 'close but no cigar', or the lack of beats that shows you that you're at the correct pitch.

If you have trouble hearing what those beats are, just play purposely flat, along with the fixed-pitch keyboard (or even a pitch-producing tuning machine), and at some point you'll say "OH, THAT"S what they mean by 'beats'. Let the pitch rise and you'll find the sweet spot.

And I realize that, to most, that above stuff is obvious....except, perhaps, the location of the Karma Department. You're welcome.

As for actually physically making the pitch happen, assuming that you KNOW the technique and just haven't mastered it yet, start with the same note that the pitch machine is playing, and play increasingly large intervals (above and below) against that note and then back to that note. If you don't know the technique, there are lots of books with pictures of throats, tongues, and arrows pointing at things that are, to some, helpful. Never as helpful as being physically with a teacher who knows stuff, but workable, in a pinch, and up to a point.

It's the Jack LaLanne method....an exercise for body and ears...and, unless you've been married to my first wife, or you played  oboe on The Sound of Music eight shows a week, for eight years running, it's probably the most boring enterprise imaginable. 

And, just so you know, I'm not a diatonic player, not much, anyway, but I do play recreational jazz chromatic harmonica a bit, have a background in some of the more expensive woodwind instruments, some of which I play in tune on, and some, I don't, but, when the need arises, I have the wisdom to look at the person next to me as if SHE was out of tune, and adjust my tuning when nobody's looking..... you learn that early on in Studio Land.

The thing  with harmonica seems to be that few people really approach it the way one would approach a More Expensive instrument, say flute, violin or one of those other instruments that our parents made payments on when we were young, and should have been learning piano.

There's probably a reason for that. It might partially be that the harmonicas give the player nice sounding things from the beginning. There are built-in things that it will do. This is especially true of the diatonics. Those instruments have lots of fun built-in, Chromatic harmonicas, a bit less, but clarinets, only the squeaks are built in, but that's not ALL bad, as the squeaks can happen in ANY key without any transposition needed, so that's cool.

So, if the object is to have fun, you start on harmonica, learn The Licks, (most applicable to diatonic, but chrom. has its own built in things that sound "harmonica-y")  your friends love it, and you're having FUN. Then, perhaps, a goal having been achieved,  your education slows down, if you let it. You then get to re-decide your goals. Practice for years more, six to eight hours a day, and become a Great Harmonica Player, perhaps one of the greatest in the Local State Unemployment line, or be really happy with what you've gotten thus far, and gradually widen your scope a bit, if there's time in your schedule. But you can make a good sound, play some tunes, and, perhaps gotten a few Groupies to follow your career and give you hope that playing harmonica will open up a Social Life for you.

All this, while the poor parents of early-stage clarinet players are walking around with ear plugs, lying thru their teeth and telling the kids how great it sounds. It does not. "Tone" on the clarinet (or most other traditionally taught instruments) comes after several years of really boring work.

If the purpose of playing is to have fun, (and I think that was the original idea) and you're having fun... that's great. 

Perhaps one attraction of the harmonica is that you can, with reasonable effort, play pretty well and have fun.

And perhaps, and this is personal experience for me, you want to take it to the level of, say, a good professional flute player, or sax player....(I had no options there, as, in theory, and according to the IRS,  I'm a professional musician, and can only approach a new instrument the same way I approached the Regular Instruments... one of those blessing/curse things, I suppose. It's just what is.)

Then, the harmonica is really, really difficult....and, when the goal is far away, or nebulous,  not so much fun.

For me, far more difficult than The Real Instruments. Some of that may be my age, I think I'm approaching 68,  but most is the really silly instrument, that, aside from the Campfire Jokes, doesn't even have its own jokes, since most are just revamped viola jokes.....

I've been working on a difficult passage someone wrote for me, and I asked my teacher about a fingering, he suggested a pattern, and it has taken me more than a few days for me to adjust. (Yeah, I am procrastinating by doing this silly writing, I admit)  He sent me an email saying "I forgot to tell you, ten years ago,  how hard the harmonica was, when you started to study harmonica with me".

Next time he checked in, I thanked him for not telling me, as, had I been daunted and not kept at it,  I would have had a much different life for the last ten years, and for me, it's pretty rewarding.

But not always fun.

I think the great part is that the people who play at any level on the harmonicas are really having fun. It took me a while to realize that, and to stop comparing their playing with the playing of people with different goals. I was truly wrong in my judgement of others (except those people who insist that Tabs is a good approach to conveying a piece of music to others. It's not. Please stop, and take the two weeks it takes to learn to read basic music... WITH MELODY!!!!!!!!)

And who's to say that the fun they have, approaching it their way, is any better than the fun I have, approaching it my way?

Not me....this stuff is hard work, not matter what your goals are.

I think becoming a professional baseball player would have been wiser... they can be right a small % of the time and make millions picking their noses and rubbing their crotches for TV,  while we musicians have to be 100% accurate, or we're unemployed. Actually we can be 100% and be unemployed as well. That 'crotch' thing, is still available to us, but chances are it won't be on TV, unless you're Anthony Weiner.

seems unfair, the income disparity, not the other stuff.

The last thing, sorry for the length (we have to write that in, in spite of the fact that that makes the note even longer, which seems to be a bit counter-productive.).....is concerning Jazz Chromatic Players. 

There may be a good reason why MOST of the very good jazz chromatic players started on another instrument.

After a more traditional learning experience, they had no choice other than to approach it the same way.


ok, what was the question?


jk

http://jonkip.com
where there are a few out of tune notes, and some that, for one reason or another, are pretty close.