How softly is softly?
Hi David,
Firstly, sorry to over analyse this... You have said from the beginning of the lessons that we should be playing softly... well, is there a way I can tell objectively whether I'm playing loudly or softly? I have nothing to compare to, since I don't know any other harp players in person.
I didn't think I was playing too loudly, but lately I've been experimenting with playing even more softly with more gain, and when recording and I notice I am more relaxed, I can play a little faster for the same accuracy, and the tone is warmer. And despite the increased gain, throat noise was actually reduced.
When I watch lessons in which you play and talk, at first it sounds to me like you are actually playing quite loudly. But that could be due to textures etc - sounding loud, without actually being loud. I captured just a few seconds of audio from a lesson just to have a look at the waveform in Audacity, and noticed that your speech actually had higher peak levels, though the harmonica was louder on average (width). There could also be compression applied for the sake of the video...
How can you best describe the desired level, over the internet???
Hello Jeremy. You hit it on the head here...
"I didn't think I was playing too loudly, but lately I've been experimenting with playing even more softly with more gain, and when recording and I notice I am more relaxed, I can play a little faster for the same accuracy, and the tone is warmer. And despite the increased gain, throat noise was actually reduced."
Your goal is 40% of your capable volume. In the lesson I'm playing acoustically (not in front of a mic or into a bullet mic), essentially like you're in the room with me, so I will play louder (speaking volume). If I'm in front of a vocal mic I'll play at the same level as speaking volume commonly and when playing through a bullet mic I'll play around half that volume, swelling up in volume regularly as I use dynamics.
I would say the key thing is not to play louder than speaking volume generally (except for dynamic purposes). This is a good rule of thumb.
Thanks for the questions, it was a good one!