The point is this. The harpoon is such a personal instrument. No one technique works for everyone. Experiment, refine, modify and develop what works for you.

Shaggy

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The point is this. The harpoon is such a personal instrument. No one technique works for everyone. Experiment, refine, modify and develop what works for you.

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Fair point there Shaggy.

I'm still persisting with the position demonstrated on this site but I guess the harpoon (sic) is no different from the guitar in that there's more than one way to achieve the same goal.

If you're a guy with big hands (like Sonny Boy Williamson II), you can get away with almost any hand position. If you're a guy with small-medium hands (like me) or female or a person under 12, you need to pay much more attention to how you form your hands. The holding style described on this site is designed to work with any size hands and quite necessary for people with small hands that want to achieve the big, fat "Sonny Boy" hand effect sound.

BENNETT:"Whilst this felt quite awkward at first, I found that with a bit of persistence the improvement to my tremelo effect was huge."

Chris, Bennett was dead-on in his first reply. The method described here does take more time initially to develope and will NOT be comfortable at first, but it does pay off in the long run with a larger, more airtight cup. Give it 2-4 weeks to beome comfortable and feel more natural. Keep looking in the mirror and/or have a willing friend take a critical look at your technique after you describe what it is you are trying to accomplish. Keep in mind, success is still roughly based on 50% effective hand positions and 50% quality and volume of air flow you create with good breathing (not pushing and pulling the air from your lips and mouth).

If you are still having problems with it in a week or two, let me know and I will try to get a few more photos up here to help you visualize the final concept better. Other than that, it sounds like you're doing everything right. . . just keep playing.

Play on,
Dave Gage

I think the 'awkwardness' of the position comes from the fact that my right elbow sits on my stomach at about the midline. If I had to GUESS how to hold the harmonica (ie. without any tutelage whatsoever) I would've though to hold it with hands clasped and such that BOTH elbows would therefore be held out to the sides equally.

Dave, if you do happen to put any more pictures up on the site could I possibly suggest that one of them be from the perspective of standing in front of the player such that the position of the arms (as well as the hands) can be seen?

This elbow position was the only thing that was making me think I might've been holding the position incorrectly. Mind you, so long as I'm STANDING it's not as bad ... much harder if sitting.

PS: Please forgive the use of CAPS - I haven't worked out how to italicise yet on this forum.

I will try to get a couple more shots up here in the next few days.

One thing you can take from Shaggy's reply is that everyone is slightly different and although we humans are basically the same, minor differences in body config means slight adaptation in technique to work for each person. What I'm trying to say is if you keep in mind the "large, airtight cup", slight changes for your body type won't be a problem.

If you want to send me a .JPG of yourself in your hand tremolo position, I can post it up here and comment on it. That might save you a heap of time. Send to:
webmaster@harmonicalessons.com

Play on,
Dave Gage

Here's a front view photo of the hand tremolo position. You will notice that the shoulders are basically back and not raised, the overall posture is erect, the elbows are away from my body by about 6-8 inches, the left wrist is almost straight, and the right wrist is almost 90 degrees. Not everyone is capable of obtaining the 90 degree angle in the right wrist, but do the best you can and feel free to do a bit of fudging if necessary (but not too much).

Let me know if this helps.

Play on,
Dave Gage

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... and the right wrist is almost 90 degrees. Not everyone is capable of obtaining the 90 degree angle in the right wrist, but do the best you can and feel free to do a bit of fudging if necessary (but not too much).

Let me know if this helps.

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Thanks for the photo Dave! Sorry I didn't get around to getting one of myself for your feedback (been flat out the last few days).

I only have about 60 degrees of extension in the right wrist so this would explain why my right elbow is more toward the midline, though in reality it's probably between the midline and the position of your elbow in the photo above.

Many thanks again - the photo provided helps a lot!

Remember, "large airtight cup" and your hands need to open a few inches (the more the better actually) and then close completely after every tremolo. Lots of folks start flapping their hands too quickly and never get back to fully closing their hands which doesn't allow for the maximum effect.

Dave

Chris

Kim

Thanks again,

Chris

That sounds like a good plan. 20 minutes or more a day is great with consistency. You will most certainly make progress, but of course, it's never as much or as fast as we would like.

CHRIS- "And over here in Japan where I am, not a lot of hope for finding a harmonica teacher.."
DG- That's what this website is for and why the Forums are so important. It's one thing to have the information in front of you, but another to get some feedback on how you're doing with it.

Play on,
Dave Gage

Thanks for your message, it was helpful. I tend to sit a lot too actually, especially if Im looking at this website when Im playing...but I try to have decent posture and pay attention to breathing....Its awkward now, but Im gonna stick with it.

Chris

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Hey Bennett,

Thanks for your message, it was helpful. I tend to sit a lot too actually, especially if Im looking at this website when Im playing...but I try to have decent posture and pay attention to breathing....Its awkward now, but Im gonna stick with it.

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No worries mate!

The thing I find the most awkward with the tremolo is that whilst I am getting more comfortable with the POSITION as demonstrated by Dave, I find it fairly difficult to then extend and flex my wrist to get the tremolo effect.

Of course, this is probably due to my joint limitation. Nevertheless, I'm continuing with it since WHEN I'm able to get the technique working, the sound is worth it.