[Harp-L] Re: Naked Tone

[Dan Hazen <bluesmandan76@xxxxxxxxx>]

This should make for an interesting topic!

There are certainly a lot of things that affect tone... embouchure, the way
you cup your microphone (or don't cup it), vibrato... I tend to approach
the harmonica and tone with a bit of flexibility... On guitar we speak of
playing dynamics... do you pick soft or hard, or use your fingers, use
pinch harmonics, a trem bar, or palm muting. There's a lot of different
ways to affect and manipulate or control your tone to create a more varied
or interesting sound. I think the same goes for harp.

There's no "ONE" tone, but you should aim to have a variety of different
tones... alter your embouchure, go thick and thin, do single notes and
double stops and chords, warbles and tremolo and vibrato and hand wahs, all
the varieties of chugging (hut, tut, huh, tuh, etc), drones, tongue
slapping, bends, overblows, overdraws, play quiet, play loud, smooth and
staccato. Do it all.

I think the "great" harmonica solos we know like Juke or Whammer Jammer do
just that, have significant variety of playing dynamics along with a good
melody or groove.