Fabulously useful, I wish I'd know of this when I was much younger. Now if Mr. Baker would intercede for harmonica players and advocate the return of his signature model, the Hohner 365/28 SBS with Hohner, we'd have a worthy instrument upon which to practice this technique!
Nothing is as simple as being one thing or the other, singing for example can be directed around the mouth for the higher notes 'head singing', and is directed further back and down for the lower the pitch.. If I Whistle the notes on a C harp the top notes have a very small mouth cavity, enlarging as I go down the scale, but the very lowest note is impossible to for me to whistle without really dropping the jaw and opening the throat. Interesting subject. Thanks for posting.
It's the formants, Steve. There is no 'one pitch' of the vocal tract, but rather formant 1 and formant 2. When you take the "tweet" out of the whistle, you are creating a 'whispered' vowel. Google: Hellwag, Music, whispered vowel -- he observed in the late 1700s that whispered vowels have pitches.
(part 2 of 2) A century later, Helmholtz and others formalized the formant theory of vowels. Overblows are more easily learned with the formant principle in mind. I have a basic youTube explanation: Blues Harp Blow Bends and Formants. Carl J. Weber, historian/linguist/harmonica player
Thank you so much for this editorial. I recently had my remaining teeth removed recently, and got me dentures. Since then my harmonica skills seriously deminished.My 45 years of playing the harmonica went to crap and I couldn't figure what my problem was. My mad harpin skills went to crap.(very frustrating). With your explination of mouth residence I think is my problem.only thing is I don't know you to change my mouth shape up to compinsate for the difference. Seems I'll have to relearn my harpin all over again.Before my skills were just 2nd nature to me and didnt even have to think about my playing my skills were hard wired I didn't have to think about it because I've been playing for close to 50 years. Now my skills skills suck. Any advise for me to acquire my harpin skills towhere
Great video, thank you very much! What keeps confusing me quite a bit though: Many people on the internet teach keeping a large mouth cavity with the tongue lying flat on the bottom of the mouth. When whistling the notes of a C harp, however, my tongue is rather somewhere in the middle of my mouth, with a slight U-shape and the left and right edges of the tongue slightly touching my upper teeth. Is that correct? Most of the time I do think it sounds better when I play this way on the harmonica and notes are far easier to bend from this position, but I'm still confused a lot by that "keep your tongue low and don't let it get to close to the teeth" thing I keep stumbling across... any help on this would be very much appreciated. :)
Thanks Jesse. Personally I've never advocated playing with the tongue "lying flat on the bottom of the mouth". When puckering, my tongue is relaxed, in the middle of the mouth and slightly behind the lower front teeth. It isn't in contact with the teeth at the sides at all, but if that's what works for you, who's to say it's wrong? Could it be that you're U-blocking? That's what your description sounds like. Quite a few great players use this embouchure (e.g. Norton Buffalo), though it's less widespread than pucker or tongue block.
@@stevebakerbluesharp Thank you for your detailed answer, that really helps me a lot. I think I'm not u-blocking... Maybe my tongue slightly touching my upper molars is just due to the shape of my mouth. :D It also happens when I produce a 'K' sound... To stick with what works for me is also very valuable advice for me, as I'm overly concerned sometimes with trying to do everything by the book, I guess. So thank you very much again! :)
I think there is more research needed in this area. The resonant frequency of the vocal track is identified with the vocal chords, if I'm not mistaken, not a whistle's pitch. Hence, you can hum and whistle two independent pitches (and melodies). The whistle pitch is from the vowel formants -- an as yet unexplored area for harp research. The "whistle pitch" seems to my experimenting to be related more to bending and overblows, and is a phenomenon of the formants. I need input from lab gear.
This was the first time I heared that song , I am totally overwhelmed by the interaction between you and Chris Jones. Thank you and Chris Jones for this enrichment
@@tjakkahify thank you, I'm glad you felt that! Chris and I had a degree of unspoken musical communication that was almost telepathic, it's sad that he died so young. I have just released a “Best Of” compilation from our 4 CDs together, it's called “Damn Good Run” and is available from Acoustic Music Records (AMR 319.1603)
@@stevebakerbluesharp Because a wavelength is just the measurement of a wave. A wave is represented as a line that goes up and down, like a peak and a valley, and a wavelength is the distance between one peak to the next. The idea of adjusting your air column to a wavelength to achieve better tone makes no sense.
Thank you. You have explained very well Steeve
More videos please! you are such a good teacher! please make your lessons available for free!
Your videos are clear simple and full of precious info thanks a lot you are legend ;)
Amazing tip, thank you Steve. Great lesson.
Nicely explained!
Many gems, thank you Steve!! :)
Very informative - the fifth and tritone examples were especially interesting
Fascinating! That was a great demonstration. Thanks for posting it.
The Robert Fripp of the harmonica world...
Good video. I have been at it going 3 years. It is great to have so many videos to learn from. Thanks for this one.
Astonishing! Thanks so much for recording the video!
Fabulously useful, I wish I'd know of this when I was much younger. Now if Mr. Baker would intercede for harmonica
players and advocate the return of his signature model, the Hohner
365/28 SBS with Hohner, we'd have a worthy instrument upon which to
practice this technique!
Thanks Deane, I'm glad if it helped :-)
Perfect!
nice
Nothing is as simple as being one thing or the other, singing for example can be directed around the mouth for the higher notes 'head singing', and is directed further back and down for the lower the pitch.. If I Whistle the notes on a C harp the top notes have a very small mouth cavity, enlarging as I go down the scale, but the very lowest note is impossible to for me to whistle without really dropping the jaw and opening the throat. Interesting subject. Thanks for posting.
It's the formants, Steve. There is no 'one pitch' of the vocal tract, but rather formant 1 and formant 2. When you take the "tweet" out of the whistle, you are creating a 'whispered' vowel. Google: Hellwag, Music, whispered vowel -- he observed in the late 1700s that whispered vowels have pitches.
(part 2 of 2) A century later, Helmholtz and others formalized the formant theory of vowels. Overblows are more easily learned with the formant principle in mind. I have a basic youTube explanation: Blues Harp Blow Bends and Formants. Carl J. Weber, historian/linguist/harmonica player
So that explains when I'm on stage and I see people furiously trying to whistle me out of the sound spectrum.. :)
Thank you so much for this editorial. I recently had my remaining teeth removed recently, and got me dentures. Since then my harmonica skills seriously deminished.My 45 years of playing the harmonica went to crap and I couldn't figure what my problem was. My mad harpin skills went to crap.(very frustrating). With your explination of mouth residence I think is my problem.only thing is I don't know you to change my mouth shape up to compinsate for the difference. Seems I'll have to relearn my harpin all over again.Before my skills were just 2nd nature to me and didnt even have to think about my playing my skills were hard wired I didn't have to think about it because I've been playing for close to 50 years. Now my skills skills suck. Any advise for me to acquire my harpin skills towhere
They were before dentures?
Great video, thank you very much! What keeps confusing me quite a bit though: Many people on the internet teach keeping a large mouth cavity with the tongue lying flat on the bottom of the mouth. When whistling the notes of a C harp, however, my tongue is rather somewhere in the middle of my mouth, with a slight U-shape and the left and right edges of the tongue slightly touching my upper teeth. Is that correct? Most of the time I do think it sounds better when I play this way on the harmonica and notes are far easier to bend from this position, but I'm still confused a lot by that "keep your tongue low and don't let it get to close to the teeth" thing I keep stumbling across... any help on this would be very much appreciated. :)
Thanks Jesse. Personally I've never advocated playing with the tongue "lying flat on the bottom of the mouth". When puckering, my tongue is relaxed, in the middle of the mouth and slightly behind the lower front teeth. It isn't in contact with the teeth at the sides at all, but if that's what works for you, who's to say it's wrong? Could it be that you're U-blocking? That's what your description sounds like. Quite a few great players use this embouchure (e.g. Norton Buffalo), though it's less widespread than pucker or tongue block.
@@stevebakerbluesharp Thank you for your detailed answer, that really helps me a lot. I think I'm not u-blocking... Maybe my tongue slightly touching my upper molars is just due to the shape of my mouth. :D It also happens when I produce a 'K' sound...
To stick with what works for me is also very valuable advice for me, as I'm overly concerned sometimes with trying to do everything by the book, I guess. So thank you very much again! :)
I think there is more research needed in this area. The resonant frequency of the vocal track is identified with the vocal chords, if I'm not mistaken, not a whistle's pitch. Hence, you can hum and whistle two independent pitches (and melodies). The whistle pitch is from the vowel formants -- an as yet unexplored area for harp research. The "whistle pitch" seems to my experimenting to be related more to bending and overblows, and is a phenomenon of the formants. I need input from lab gear.
With what harmonica did you played on - SOUL STORM COMIN? and in what key?
As far as I recall I played a G Marine Band Deluxe harmonica, retuned to Natural Minor. The song is in Dm and I played in 2nd position.
This was the first time I heared that song , I am totally overwhelmed by the interaction between you and Chris Jones.
Thank you and Chris Jones for this enrichment
@@tjakkahify thank you, I'm glad you felt that! Chris and I had a degree of unspoken musical communication that was almost telepathic, it's sad that he died so young. I have just released a “Best Of” compilation from our 4 CDs together, it's called “Damn Good Run” and is available from Acoustic Music Records (AMR 319.1603)
tried very hard to understand
Rubbish. "Adjust your air column to the wavelength of the note."
Do tell me why you think so
@@stevebakerbluesharp Because a wavelength is just the measurement of a wave. A wave is represented as a line that goes up and down, like a peak and a valley, and a wavelength is the distance between one peak to the next. The idea of adjusting your air column to a wavelength to achieve better tone makes no sense.