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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
Vibrato
Vibrato
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Anonymous
Guest
Oct 12, 2008
6:45 PM
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I find that I can only get a good vibrato when I'm playing rather softly. Does anyone else have this problem? Is there a remedy?
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Preston
62 posts
Oct 13, 2008
6:11 AM
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My best advice is...Practice. And more practice.
I used to not be able to do vibrato on a bent note. I found Jason Ricci's video one day saying that he moved his jaw quickly to get vibrato on bent notes and I thought that was the answer. Then one day I decided that although technically it worked, it was kind of a short cut. No offense to Jason, obviously he is awesome.
With a little committment and a lot of woodshedding work, I can now use diaghram vibrato on a bent note.
Hopefully this same thought process will help you on your when you are playing with force.
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Anonymous
Guest
Oct 13, 2008
9:02 AM
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You've made a great discovery! Quit playing so hard and you'll discover the nuances of the harp.
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kudzurunner
126 posts
Oct 13, 2008
9:48 AM
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When I give harmonica clinics, I talk about the four kinds of vibrato that I use.
1) THROAT. This is what I use 90% of the time. If you've got a good one when you play softly, work with it. Apply it to extended notes, tap your foot to keep the beat, and gradually try to increase the volume. Pull air strongly and smoothly from your diaphragm, in one continuous pull; let your throat do the rest.
2) BELLY. This is entirely different from throat vibrato, and there's a lot of confusion on this point. I do a deep, strong, full vibrato from my throat; ALL of the action is above the neck. But occasionally I want to create a very strong vibrato, and a smooth one, on a bent 2 draw, or a 45 doublestop, and in those cases I sometimes switch to belly vibrato. Here the throat does nothing and the diaphragm does it all. You've got to loosen up your belly, like a bellows, and let it move visibly in and out.
3) JAW. I learned this by watching Chris Michalek's videos, but I'd started to realize that other overblowers, including Howard, Jason, and Carlos, were using this. Howard and Carlos in particular get a distinctive vibrato on the high blow notes, as does Chris. I'm just starting to work this one in.
4) HAND. When I want to put vibrato on the bent 10 blow on an A harp (the Magic Dick note), I wiggle my hand as I'm executing and holding the blow bend. I invented this technique for myself, but I hold no patent on it and I'm sure others made the same discovery.
I've heard lots of talk about distinctions between vibrato and tremolo. Whatever. One involves a rising and falling pitch, the other involves an increase and decrease in volume. Whatever. Meaning: use WHATEVER technique you need in order to produce the sound that feels right to you. Don't make a fetish of the technique. We all do slightly or somewhat different things. It's the sound that counts, always.
Technique is merely a means to an end, but there are always several ways, multiple ways, to achieving the same end. To argue otherwise--i.e., "There's only one right way"--is fundamentalism. Since blues harmonica is, at bottom, a result of an impure mixture--German-made instruments played "cross," by black Southern men stomping down on some blues pitches the instrument was NOT designed to produce--it seems kinda.....silly to argue for the fundamentalist position. I trust that nobody does. :)
Last Edited by on Oct 13, 2008 9:52 AM
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Anonymous
Guest
Oct 13, 2008
10:39 AM
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Thanks Mr. Gussow! That's great advice! Back to the woodshed.
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