Speaking into the harmonica

Thanks for posting @LoneStar. Interesting read and perfectly answers my original question. There you are, it is a thing. What’s the difference between using articulations or phonetics when playing? Just what we call the different sounds maybe.

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Good read, having studied phonetics for two years at university I can fortunately grasp the technicalities. They might be somewhat confusing though.
Articulate kee-koo-kee as Jon Gindick suggests makes a big difference in my bends, making also easier to go back to the unbent note (3d 3d” 3d).

Ciao

Stefano :smiling_face_with_sunglasses:

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I believe, and correct me if I’m wrong. But my understanding is phonetics is the general term for linguistic sounds. Articulation is “you” actually making those noises.

Glad you liked the article. I will see what else I can find on the subject, if you like?

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Phonetics are the rules and Articulations are the sounds you make.

Thank you, Stefano. I will try to remember that information. Much appreciated.

Happy to help :smiling_face_with_sunglasses:

I actually notice this a lot in Todd Parrott’s playing. Not just in his melody playing but also in how he plays fills and the like. Looking back on my old Youtube videos starting from mid 2022 (when I first started lessons with him), I actually tend to do this “talking” thing a lot whenever I play the blues. For me, it’s a combination of using the inside of my mouth to shape the tone and emphasizing with my hands.

I know that I learned this not only from my lessons, but also from listening to Terry McMillan and paying close attention to how he would phrase a lot of his licks. His ability to make the harmonica sound similar to the human voice was and still is fascinating to me. And even the fact that the general public and his musical collegues appreciated how he created a big sound out of something so tiny, especially for being a pucker player, it comes to show how little the trad blues guys on Facebook know about how much of an impact he made on country music.

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