Re: [Harp-L] Working on groove

[The Iceman <icemanle@xxxxxxx>]

You are talking about the "envelope" of a single note.


Simplified, it consists of attack, sustain and cut off.


Attack is what happens when silence explodes into sound.


Sustain is the sound hanging in the air.


Cut off is the end of the sound.


On harmonica, attack and cut off are mostly controlled by whether you use starting/stopping breath or the tongue to shape it through a consonant approach ("T", "D", "K", etc)


Jerry Portnoy talks about this in his Harmonica Master Class CD/book set.


He called it soft attack or hard.


You can create a note by the following "words"....   "HUH", "TUH", "TUT" and "HUT".


Soft is using "H" and hard is using "T".


Try creating 4 hole exhale note using the four approaches listed above and you will start to notice the differences between different attacks and cut offs.


The "U" in the middle is the sustain, which you control by your breath, mouth cavity, tongue placement, etc., to shape the note sound, add vibrato, etc.


It's worth spending a little time with each permutation until you fully understand them and decide which ones to use at what point in your playing to create your own unique sound.



-----Original Message-----
From: Music Cal <macaroni9999@xxxxxxxxx>
To: harp-L list <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sat, Sep 7, 2013 10:46 pm
Subject: Re: [Harp-L] Working on groove


Hi Winslow

Yes, how the note begins and ends and everything in between. If one were to
plot the envelope of the magnitude of the air oscillations with respect to
time that would the shape that I am talking about. Also, I am interested in
controlling the emphasis of the pitches in relation to beats as you pointed
out.

This reminds of discussions about tone. Subtle and musically very important
stuff.

MusiCal


On Wed, Sep 4, 2013 at 10:23 AM, Music Cal <macaroni9999@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Thanks Paul. I will check it out the Ed Friedland book.
>
>
> On Sun, Sep 1, 2013 at 4:19 PM, HarpNinja <harpninja@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>> This is an excellent book by Bass player/educator Ed Friedland
>> Bass Grooves: Develop Your Groove and Play Like the Pros in Any Style
>> Book/CD
>>
>> http://www.amazon.com/Bass-Grooves-Develop-Groove-Softcover/dp/0879307773/re
>> f=pd_sim_b_2<http://www.amazon.com/Bass-Grooves-Develop-Groove-Softcover/dp/0879307773/ref=pd_sim_b_2>
>>
>> Designed for Bass players but in my humble opinion it is a great practical
>> guide for any musician to gain a greater understanding of what "The
>> Groove"
>> is.
>>
>>
>> Paul Cohen aka Komuso Tokugawa
>> Shibuya-Ku
>> Tokyo, Japan
>> Skype: sonicviz
>> http://www.sonicviz.com
>> http://music.sonicviz.com/
>> http://harpninja.com
>> http://chordskilz.sonicviz.com/
>> Linked In: Paul Cohen
>> Twitter: @sonicviz @komusotokugawa @harpninja
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>