Now that I am beginning to improve with my harp playing (after two years slog), I am now at a stage where I need to increase the speed of my playing.
In order that the notes are not slurred it seems that tongueing is required to give the notes a definate start and stop. I'm finding that I get lost and my mouth just goes to mush and I lose control when I go over a certain speed.
Does anyone have any tips or practice suggestions which may help me get this under control? I have a routine where I run up and down the harp with arpeggios, but because these require a movement to the adjacent note, tongueing isn't always necessary but it does help with the speed aspect.
Also, I'd like to get opinions on whether most people tongue draw bends because I'm finding that necessary to try and hit the right depth of bend.
In essence I'm a bit confused as to when tongueing is best used and I tend to only use it when I can remember to. Any views, suggestions for practice would be appreciated.
tonguing = tongue block? or is tonguing articulating the note (like tata)
otherwise: playing fast is, I think just about gradually increasing your speed (I've never heard of any other way...). Arpeggios and scales are good, but mix it up a little. A little exercise which I use to work on precision is:
-5 +5 -5 -4 -5 +4 -5 -3 -5 -3' -5 -3 -5 +4 -5 -4 and from the beginning. Here you have everything: jumping from a draw to blow note. jumping two holes, jumping two holes to a intermediate bend, and some weird draw/blow patterns... that's what it's about: having weird draw blow and tonguing combinations. and than faster and faster and faster...
...and similar stuff. Check out Jasons vidos if you didn't already.
Does this help? ---------- germanharpist, harpfriends on Youtube
Last Edited by on Aug 15, 2009 12:33 AM
Yes it is the tata tongueing I'm referring to. Thanks GH I'll revisit Jasons videos for a refresher. Harmonicanick. I start like you suggest and then tighten up as I proceed. Must stop that. ----------
Tookatooka, I used to use tongue articulation a lot, especially to kick in bends. Now I don't use it so much, except to get a staccato effect. I also use throat articulation too, like Gindick describes in his videos (kaa), but again, not too often these days. I'm not great at speed yet either, but I agree with GH that slowly increasing speed and practicing scales etc. helps.
As for the harmonica, I'm mostly a pucker man, but I like tonguing to play the octave or to create another noises who's names I don't know (basically sort of a sliding chord vibrato). When I am practicing tonguing I practice by going slowly and instead and practice playing off either side (or both sides) of my tongue. Try to prevent yourself from moving your head or harp a lot and focus on the tongue blocks. Still, I'm finding for sharp, accurate, single notes, pucker seems to work better, but maybe that's just me.
(On a side note, I was just about to post this last night when another program brought my computer crashing down to the blue screen of death. When I rebooted this morning (It was late so I just went to bed) Firefox asked me if I wanted to restore the session and a little add-on I have called Lazarus had even saved the unfinished post for me!)
I don't got the my computer crashed and I lost my unsaved data blues... oh yeah... I don't got them blues.
