[Harp-L] better living through th Internet

[jon kip <jon@xxxxxxxxxx>]

> On Feb 22, 2016, at 2:09 PM, harp-l-request@xxxxxxxxxx wrote:
> 
> For one brief minute, before going to work, I heard it. The tone I've been
> looking for. Hopefully I can call it back tomorrow.

That's great.

While a very good way to work on tone is to sit and play duets with a Great Player in Your Area, that's not always possible. I was lucky, live close to Tommy Morgan, ($200,000 East of Tommy's place) so we got to  play duets a lot and that helped my tone.  (Along with sixty years of playing Expensive Woodwinds, which is probably considered to be Cheating.).

You have that tone you've been looking for, as you say, so, if it fails to return tomorrow,  play that tone on a low note, long, and then just switch up a half or whole step , trying to make  no physical changes, and make that note have your great sound. (At some point , you will be making physical changes, but won't notice after a while.)

Say your Great Note is low E. 
Hold it out, no vibrato, for fifteen seconds or so and then push the slide in, and maintain that same sound quality.

Consider the E with the F as ONE NOTE. Everything but your slide finger and your ears thinks that you're playing one note. 

Increase the interval above E each time you feel good about the previous interval, and in a month or two, you've got that great sound on all the notes and the dogs have stopped barking, at least on your mid-range notes.

It's not really possible to make the top notes' sound have a low note tone, but having that as a goal will expand your range of Good Sounding notes. Sooner or later, the neighbor's dogs will not respond to those high notes. 

Obviously, there WILL be physical changes you make as you go up, and that's fine, necessary, and soon it'll become automatic...Aiming for a low note sound on the higher notes can't hurt.

If you need proof of how the Physical has to change due to range , pick up a diatonic backwards, without knowing it's reversed. Play a "low" note and hear mostly nothing.

There, there's your Legit Flute lesson for today. 

The price was right. I hope your Great Tone comes back tomorrow and you can ignore all this.

jon kip
jon@xxxxxxxxxx