Single note melodies sound mechanical
David, thank you for putting together what appears to be a really great online hormonica blues school. I evaluated several online schools before landing here, and yours is more than just blowing some licks and calling it playing. I learned more from one of your free evaluation courses than I did 4 week at another online school. You're really detailed (almost overwelming.) Thanks for adding Music Therory in to the leassons. This has really helped a lot in understanding why my engineering mind can't grasp the concept of the mathmatical inconsistancies of music.
My question is when I play single note melodies my notes they sound mechanical. Your notes sound softer. I can very the volume of the longer playing notes in the level 1 song Walk With Me making them sound so much better, but my single quarter note melodies just sound mechanical with no soft beginging. Is there a trick such as an articulation that can ad in making the notes sound better?
Also will one learn to recognize when their playing notes well while playing? When I play Walk with Me I think I am doing really well. When I listen to the recording of me playing I think I have no business trying to play music.
Thank you. For some reason I was insisting on using my diaphrame to control the shape of the note. That was working for the long held notes, but was not quick enough to give me a good sound on the single shorter notes. Using the vocal cord to control the shape of the note seems to work. I still have a ways to go to get them to sound good, but I can already hear an improvement in my recordings.
Thank you,
Brian
Hello Brian. The diaphragm is correct for shaping the notes, but you're right, for the faster notes, articulation is needed (commonly slight cough for blow and K for draw). I'm glad you're hearing some improvement.
Hello brshoemaker, welcome to the site.
Thank you for your kind words, I'm glad you're enjoying your studies.
You hit it on the head when you mentioned dynamics... that's they key. Your goal is to practice dynamics to the point where you can vary your volume on notes as fast as eighth notes (notes that are worth half a beat in value). I have a lesson on this. It's above your skill level in the lesson structure, but there's no reason why you can't study it now (it's really not dependent on skill level). The lesson is here https://www.bluesharmonica.com/lessons/dynamics
What will also give you a much smoother sound is the use of tremolo. If you're not already working on it, make it part of your daily practice.
In regards to recognizing when your notes sound good while playing... that's a process over time. Recording is a very helpful tool, but it can also bum a player out when they hear how far they have to go. Stick with it... it will get better, and better, but just not as fast as you would like it to.