The Quest for Tone
（Translate by napier@bdwm.net = 大狐狸@sina.com，原文来自网络：www.harmonicasessions.com，原作David Barrett，文章内容版权属于原作者）
The quest for good tone is always on the mind of the conscientious harmonica player. Achieving a good acoustic (non amplified) tone is difficult enough, but to add into the mix how a mic and amplifier work with it adds to the complexity. Most players understand that good tone comes with time, but there are specific areas of focus that we’ll study right now that will take years of this process.
Embouchure
The first place to start is with your embouchure. Embouchure for the harmonica player encompasses the throat, jaw, tongue and lips; all of which affect tone. The easiest way to explain what is considered a good embouchure is to yawn. The throat opens, the jaw drops and the tongue lowers to the floor of the mouth. The result is a large airway for warm air to travel in and out of the harmonica.
Pictured below are some side shots of well-know players performing at a Harmonica Masterclass Workshop® (photos by Mark Fenichel). Notice how low each player’s jaw is dropped to achieve good tone.
The Tongue
Placement of the tongue is a very important factor. Most people, even when they think the tongue is down, unknowingly hump the middle to back of their tongue up. If the tongue impedes the airway, it will cause your tone to be weak, flat and/or airy. Start by looking in the mirror and yawning. Notice the placement of your tongue. Is it humped up in the back? If it is in the correct location, it should be sitting on the floor of the mouth, with the top of the tongue pretty much level with the top of your lower teeth. As time goes on you can have your tongue rest higher in the mouth, but until you are able to control the placement of your tongue (this will happen naturally over time) it’s best to just leave it out of the way.
The Lips
Many blues players (including myself) use what’s called the tilted embouchure. By tilting the face of the harmonica downward (up to forty-five degrees) the single hole is created from the curvature of the lower lip. This frees the upper lip to ride up on the top cover plate as high as the player wants. When tongue blocking, this embouchure is also desirable because the tilt of the harmonica allows you to use the broad top of the tongue instead of the tip. This makes general tongue blocking techniques like pulls and five-hole octaves much easier to achieve and in general sound better due to achieving more even coverage over the holes.
All of this is what I call natural tone. Your goal is to create a warm, round sound from every note that you play. If you hear that a note sounds flat in pitch, your tongue is in the way. Experiment with tongue placement to raise the pitch of the note. If you hear that a note sounds airy, your tongue is in the way. Experiment with tongue placement to get rid of as much airiness as possible. If you hear that your tone is thin and lacks fullness, follow all of the directions above to open your embouchure to achieve good tone.
