Articulation
Mon, 05/27/2013 - 10:01
This question is probably way too broad, but how often do you use a "K" articulation?
I've realized lately that I rarely use it, and I'm wondering if this is adversely affecting my sound.
I think that when I'm purposely trying to articulate something "hard," I often cheat by slipping back to lip pursing long enough to use a "ta" articulation, but mostly I'm either just using my breath/throat/glottis, or a pull-slap (which is addicting), or a kind of front-third-of the tongue "Tuh" while tongue blocking. (Kind of between "Ka" and "Ta"...kind of a "Cha?" The latter seems to come more naturally than a "Ka," but I'm thinking it might cause tone problems. Is this worth re-training for?
Thanks.
This is a good question. In the tradition post-war style of blues I teach... generally speaking... we only using a slight cough for blow notes (same as the muscle we use for the throat tremolo).
For draw notes, any number of articulations can be used for...
1) Separation of the same pitch
2) To give a note more punch
3) To separate a bent note from the non-bent note on the same hole... in succession.
"Ka" is by far the most common. Wherever you were using "Ta" in pucker you can use "Ka" in TB. Your "Tuh" is just fine (this is similar to what I call a side-pull... very obscurely talked about technique, but all TB'ers use it and most are unaware of it)... as long as you can achieve good separation and you're not bending the note unintentionally.
In general, we don't really articulate that much in traditional blues... so you're on the right track.