tremolo

And now for the fourth point of the 4-Point hold...

The webbing of skin between your thumb and forefinger creates a nice backstop for the left side of the harmonica. The location of where you place the corner of the harmonica depends on the size and shape of your left hand, but the general ideas is simple... allow a little bit of the rear, left-hand corner of the harmonica settle into that area at some point so that it prevents the harmonica from sliding away from your mouth as you play. continue reading...

One of the tips to help new players create the vibrato is to slightly prebend the note before starting the throat tremolo (the motor for the vibrato). One you have a feel for this, stop this practice so that you can play that note in tune.

A reminder to all students that tremolos and flutters should not be locked to a specific rhythm. It's common to receive submissions where the student is playing all of these at the triplet rhythm (three pieces of the tremolo or flutter per beat). This is mechanical sounding... they should float. A general rule of the thumb is to have them be slightly faster than the triplet. This floating quality is what makes your music sound smooth, and when coupled with dynamics, emotional.

Tremolo is created at the vocal folds, opening and closing in a rhythmic fashion. This controlled muscle is also often used for articulation. In fact, it's the primary articulation (think slight cough) used for blow notes in post war Chicago blues (except for chugging, where the "T" and "K" articulations are more common). Though not common for draw notes, you can use it as well, especial for fast passages when tongue blocking (a lick in Little Walter's "Evan's Shuffle" comes to mind where I consciously used it, the 5 draw at 1:04).

Current blues harmonica players that can perform the vibrato well (Kim Wilson for example), choose not to use it to sound more classic. Since players like Little Walter, Big Walter Horton and George "Harmonica" Smith used tremolo, if a player is inspired by those players, they'll commonly choose to use their approach to tremolo as well.

Tremolo (change in amplitude) is what most of our classic blues harmonica players used (pre-1960). Vibrato (change in pitch) became popular in the lat 1960's. If a classic player used a vibrato they tended to have a strong vocal vibrato as well (Howlin' Wolf is a great example). Players that are heavily influenced by Paul Butterfield (many are) they'll tend to use a strong vibrato. continue reading...

The use of tremolo/vibrato is greatly emphasized in your lessons and submission critiques. It's used so much that it can be a dramatic effects to not use it. Listen to the opening of "Blue Midnight" by Little Walter and notice how hounting it sounds to not use it in the opening lines.

I'm off to camp through Sunday afternoon and then come in to do a lesson with Ryan Walker and record the last of the Masco Chronicles with Mark Overman. Have a great weekend everyone!

Continuing on the theme of the importance of being relaxed while playing for good tone... relax your neck/throat muscles. While performing the tremolo for example, only the muscles that are involved in the opening and closing of your vocal folds are needed. While performing a bend, the tongue is the only muscle that needs to move. Engaging the neck muscles around your throat will narrow your air passage, diminishing the size of that resonant chamber, sacrificing tone production in that part of your mouth. Early fatigue is of course an issue as well when using more muscle than you need... continue reading...

When watching players like Sonny Terry and Rice Miller on video you'll sometimes see them move their hands left to right or fan the harmonica while playing. Though they don't touch the harmonica, this rhythmic movement in front of the harmonica does alter their tone and volume in a rhythmic way. It's hard to call this a full-on tremolo due to its short duration and small tonal change, but it's cool and worthy of mention.

Though not usually taught as a way to produce a tremolo, using the diaphragm in a panting-like movement creates an interesting version of it. Jason Ricci uses this and demonstrates it in his interview on the site http://www.bluesharmonica.com/jason_ricci. Why is this not taught?... it takes less effort to produce a tremolo from the throat (vocal folds opening and closing) and is easier to produce a vibrato by actuating it from the throat. With this said, Jason makes it sound pretty good, so it is a valid option.