Basic skills of playing harmonica:
First, monosyllabic performance
There are two ways to play a single tone, that is, to play a melody. One is to narrow your lips and aim at a single hole. The sound produced by this method is rich and solid, with obvious changes in strength and pure timbre, which is convenient for the use of conventional techniques such as air vibration and sliding sound, so many musicians in the world, especially those in Europe and America, mostly adopt this method.
In addition, there is a "hole-containing" method, which is called "new single-tone play" by China players. The method is: open your mouth slightly, put the harmonica in your mouth, block most of the holes on the left with your tongue, leaving only one hole on the right to play. The sound played by this method is softer and more convenient, but the sound is more dispersed and the timbre changes little. The two methods of playing single notes have their own advantages and disadvantages, and players should use them correctly according to different works.
Two monophonic playing methods are used to play melody, which have two basic elements: Legato and staccato. Because the harmonica is a breathing instrument, improper control will give people a sense of disconnection. This is a common problem that many players tend to ignore, but it will be obvious if you listen carefully or record it. How should the harmonica show the connection? First of all, you should sing the soundtrack according to the artistic conception of the work and sing it coherently. When playing, don't leave the piano box no matter how you play a single note. In addition, if you connect two sounds in one breath and one breath, the latter sound will be played slightly weaker than the previous one, which will give people the feeling of connection. About staccato, that is, staccato notes are not connected. If you play staccato with your lips contracted, you should "spit" like a wind instrument, that is, your tongue makes a "spit" sound in your mouth and breaks the sound. This method is standardized and can better express the requirements of music. In addition, the action of the tongue is the same regardless of sound blowing or sound absorption. When the same sound is repeated continuously in the connection, spit gently, don't stop breathing, and disconnect gently. If the staccato method is used, because you can't rely on the action of your tongue, you can only disconnect those unconnected sounds by stopping breathing. When the same sound is staccato, some players still use "cough", which is also a method, but you should be careful not to have too many guttural sounds.
Connecting and staccato are two basic techniques of melody expression, and the above is just a brief introduction. In the performance, we should also carefully grasp and deal with the specific requirements of music works.
Second, vibrato.
Tremolo is a basic skill in harmonica playing, which can be divided into hand vibrato and air vibrato. By using vibrato, music can be more vivid, detailed and full of emotion.
Hand tremolo: Hold the bottom of the piano by hand and close it, so that a closed space is formed between the two palms, and one hand is evenly fanned (chromatic harmonica and blues harmonicas usually use the left hand, while polyphonic harmonicas mostly use the right hand), which produces ripple sound when playing. The speed of hand movements depends on the specific situation of music, but it must be controlled well, the movements should be uniform, and the arms and wrists should be relaxed. Hand vibrato is a continuous alternation through the opening and closing of the hand, relying on the "air vibration" at the edge of the piano, so there is no change in pitch. This is a unique vibrato method which is different from other instruments in harmonica playing. It is often used to play soft and lyrical movements, especially to decorate and beautify long notes, such as Bach's Aria on the G String and Debussy's Moonlight, in which hand vibrato is widely used.
Air vibrato: produced by the alternation of breath strength, just like the vibrato in wind music and the friction of strings in violin, it is also widely used in harmonica playing. If hand vibrato is an air vibrato produced by the even beating of hands, then air vibrato is a vibrato with changing pitch caused by the change of air flow strength blown by players, which accords with the traditional concept of vibrato. The vibration of qi can be practiced by playing a long sound. Blow the sound smoothly first, then apply force evenly, and the breathing cannot be interrupted, thus producing a vibrating sound that fluctuates up and down. When playing, the position of qi should be lowered, and the abdomen should be used to inhale, and the abdominal pressure should be used to complete it. At the beginning of practice, the sound of blowing is relatively easy to do, and the sound of inhaling is somewhat difficult. It is best to play naturally, and pay attention to the identification. Compared with hand vibrato, air vibrato is more in line with acoustic principles, with thick and gorgeous sound quality, good plasticity, more detailed music processing and strong expressive force. This technique is most commonly used in chromatic harmonica and Bruce harmonica playing.
Third, the sliding sound
Slip refers to the way of playing from one sound to another. Effects, such as the sliding sound used in stringed or wind instruments. This is an important skill that harmonica is superior to other reed instruments (such as organ and accordion). Its sound effect is natural, smooth and plastic, and it is mostly used to play pop music, jazz music and blues music. There are two kinds of sliding: upward sliding and downward sliding.
Both chromatic harmonica and Bruce play the sliding harmonica by narrowing their lips and blowing a single hole. Because the polyphonic harmonica has double reeds, it is necessary to cover the blowholes in the next row with the lower lip and only blow the single hole on it. When playing, the airflow changes from slow to sharp, and the lips change from loose to tight, which makes the reed press down and produces a falling sound (generally falling two degrees to two degrees). Due to the structure of the harmonica, it is easier to absorb sound and more difficult to play, which requires careful experience and practice by the player. Slippery is the most commonly used in harmonica performance, and even the characteristic sounds b7 and b3 of blues harmonica can only be obtained by sliding.
The sound of sliding up is opposite to that of sliding down. At first, you should tighten your lips and breathe urgently, so that the sound of the harmonica will be two or two degrees higher than that of the hole. Then, you should relax your lips and breathe slowly, and the sound will slide up to the normal pitch of the hole. It's a little harder to play the glide than the glide, but the reason is the same. The key lies in the player's grasp of harmonica performance and scientific practice.
In practice, first of all, we should pay attention to the adjustment of breath, and try to keep the breath down to make full use of the pressure of the abdomen on the airflow. Secondly, we should pay attention to pitch, that is, the concept of pitch of two degrees and two degrees. On this basis, we should be familiar with the style and content of music in order to make the technique of sliding sound behave properly. In addition, due to the technical difficulty of sliding sound, the quality of harmonica also plays a great role in its play. Only when you are flexible, your voice will be relaxed and smooth.
Fourth, the performance of harmony.
Harmony refers to the harmonica playing chords or tones. Harmonica can be pronounced in several holes at the same time, and it can be played and inhaled, but it is not a genius or an instrument.
Let's start with chord playing. We know that with the porous method, the tongue can be released and several holes can be sounded at the same time, and "1 3 5" can be obtained by blowing and "2 4 6 7" can be obtained by inhaling. According to the major mode, only a few chords such as the main chord "1 3 5", the second chord "2 4 6" and the seventh chord "7 2 4" can be played. Many harmonica lovers are playing some traditional and classical works, but the harmonica doesn't even have the most basic IV chord "4 6 1" and V chord "5 7 2". The blues harmonica can only have "1 3 5" and "5 7 2 (4)" chords due to its special arrangement. Harmonica is not a good instrument for playing chords because of its breathing and structural relationship, and it is impossible to combine chords at will to meet the requirements of music and color.
In traditional harmonica playing, especially polyphonic harmonica playing, there is a method called "accompaniment", that is, playing with a hole, raising the tongue and immediately putting it back to its original position to produce a short chord, which is also called "accompaniment", such as "∧" or "∧". This mistake in harmony is obvious. Today, with the high development of music and people's high appreciation level, we must face up to this long-standing habitual problem, because it does not meet the requirements of harmony and acoustics and cannot be arbitrarily interpreted as "this is the harmonica." Any musical instrument should serve music, so should the harmonica.
Hideo Sato, a world-class Japanese harmonica player, invented the minor harmonica in an attempt to improve the harmony of the harmonica, but it was only suitable for some specific tracks, such as the famous Moon in Desert City and Variations on Cherry Blossoms. But for these two works, when recording, the harmonica only played two suitable chords, relying more on the accompaniment of the band. The Song of the Gypsy, which he played according to Sarasate's violin music, was completely accompanied by the piano, and the harmonica only played a single melody and one or two chords and disyllables corresponding to the piano accompaniment chords, thus perfectly showing the artistic conception of the original and becoming a model of harmonica performance. Some harmonicians need to change several harmonicas with different keys when playing a piece of music, which is not only for the purpose of tuning, but also for the need of harmony processing.
Harmonica can play a small number of double tones, such as three degrees, four degrees, five degrees, six degrees, and very few two degrees and seven degrees, through the change of mouth and the movement of tongue. Only octave double tones are available for each tone on the harmonica. Chromatic harmonica has an advantage in playing two notes, because he can play all the semitones. However, the performance of the two sounds should be based on the needs of music and should not be used at will. In general, every double tone should be attached to the chord of the original, which requires the player to learn the knowledge of music theory and chord while playing the harmonica, and correctly master and use the harmony on the harmonica. In this respect, harmonica musicians in Europe and America have studied it more deeply than we do. Although they mainly play single notes and often use bands or other musical instruments to accompany them, in their works, they can often compile beautiful harmonies suitable for harmonica playing, which is refreshing and amazing. Larry Adler, a famous harmonica master, is a representative figure in exploring harmonic performance, and he used this technique extensively in his works. If we have heard his works such as rhapsody in blue and Summer Time, we will have a better understanding of the use of harmony.
Harmony is an important performance factor of music. If the melody expresses a single musical line, then harmony will present a vertical three-dimensional sense full of gorgeous colors, like a flowing building. Harmonica playing should foster strengths and avoid weaknesses. In addition to making more efforts in melody expression, every harmony played should be carefully analyzed and kept consistent with the original harmony, otherwise there will be harmony errors. In the long run, it will also destroy the player's feeling of harmony color and produce a boring feeling. In addition, we can notice the harmonica playing in some music or songs. Usually the harmonica only plays a single melody, accompanied by a band, piano or guitar. I do the same thing when I play in a symphony orchestra or dub movies. This not only meets the requirements of music, but also provides more space for playing skills, which the majority of harmonica lovers may wish to learn from.