I have some "inside" information on chugging (Madcat's VHS tape
of "Ins and Outs of Rhythm Harp Playing", Ben Hewlett's "Get
Chugging", Al Smith's "Chugger's Manual for 48-Chord Harmonica",
Glenn Weiser's "Irish And American Fiddle Tunes For Harmonica",
and a bunch of other books/CDs with a LITTLE chugging).
Consequently, I have to struggle to avoid violating someone's
copyright when discussing this subject. If I do that here, please
forgive me, it is unintentional.
Here are some "hints" that I've found useful for learning chugging.
I actually developed this approach BEFORE getting all that literature.
Doug Puls, a friend of mine over on "harptalk", had recommended
a "do it yourself" approach as the BEST (not necessarily FASTEST)
way to learn the "ins and outs" of chugging.
1. Separate the letters of the alphabet into two groups, consonants
and vowels. (Hey! Quitcherbitchin - there are only 26 letters in the
English alphabet! Those with other alphabets will have to adapt,
using your own native alphabet. The Spanish "r" sound is GREAT
for simulating drum rolls on harmonica!)
2. Combine each consonant with all of the vowel sounds, one
consonant paired with one vowel at one time.
3. Articulate each combination out loud a few times WITHOUT a
harmonica in your mouth.
4. After getting the general idea of what goes on inside your mouth
with a particular combination, put the harmonica into your mouth
(in your favorite embouchure, of course) and REPEAT the articulation.
*****VERY IMPORTANT: DO N-O-T TRY TO ACTUALLY ARTICULATE
*****THE SOUND THROUGH THE HARMONICA! Simply move your
*****tongue, mouth, jaw, throat, etc. AS IF you are actually saying
*****the syllable, while BREATHING in and out of the harmonica.
5. You will discover that some combinations work better when
breathing OUT, some will work better when breathing IN, and
some will work in either direction. You will also find some
combinations that do NOT work at all with YOUR embouchure.
Generally, I've found that there are 4 very useful hard consonants
(for ME):
----- "T" (Works with the tip of the tongue)
----- "D" (Works with the front part of the tongue)
----- "K" (Works with the middle part of the tongue)
----- "G" (Works with the back part of the tongue and the throat)
"H" and "CH" also work very well with my embouchure (groove tongue).
"T" and "D" work especially well for starting and ending staccato
(very short) notes.
Very useful vowel sounds are: "ooh', "aah", and "uuh".
Here's where you get the rubber down on the road.
Any combination that is open-ended (no consonant at the end) is
VERY USEFUL for longer notes (quarter notes, halfnotes, whole notes).
Any combination ending in "T" or "D" is VERY USEFUL for shorter notes
(eigth notes, sixteenth notes; I haven't gotten to 32nd notes yet).
Pick a rhythm (any rhythm). For purposes of this discussion, let's
start with the waltz rhythm (3/4 time).
We want a longer articulation for the first beat, which gets the accent.
We want two shorter articulations for the 2nd and 3rd beats.
Try "ooom-pah-pah" , while stretching out the "ooom" part, and then
giving each of the "pah" parts an equal (but shorter) time.
Here's where your previous exercise with all possible combinations comes
into service for you. If you are like me (let's hope NOT!), you will find
that the "m" sound at the end of the "ooom" requires you to clamp your
lips tightly together. NOT GOOD, with a harmonica inside your lips! The
same thing is true of the "pah" parts: the "p" sound again requires you
to clamp your lips together intially, then pop them apart explosively.
NOT GOOD for holding that harp in your lips!
Let's try something different, from the set of consonants I recommended.
Anybody familiar with the old Morse code, "dah" and "dit"?
Use "dah" for the first beat, and then "dit" for the 2nd and 3rd beats.
Stretch the "dah" out ("daaaah", and clip off the "dit" sounds.
Now try this "pattern" with one of your favorite waltzes. Notice how nicely
the "dah-dit-dit" fits with the rhythm of the song?
How about a typical 4/4 song beat?
Pick a consonant/vowel combination that can be used 4 times in a row.
Let's use "dah" and "dit" again.
Articulate "dah" on beats 1 and 3, and "dit" on beats 2 and 4. The rhythm
pattern becomes "dah-dit-dah- dit", repeated every measure. Notice that
the "dah" lends itself quite nicely to accenting beats 1 and 3, while cutting
beats 2 and 4 a little short with the "dit".
The actual articulation combination is UNIMPORTANT, generally. In all
cases, try to match your rhythm articulations to the time duration of
the LYRICS.
And, as Eddie stated above, START SLOW! Speed WILL come with practice.
In summary, start out with simple rhythms, and work your way through
several different combinations of consonants/vowels to see which seem
to best fit (in YOUR humble opinion) the particular rhythm pattern. Once
you find a good combination, WRITE IT DOWN OR MEMORIZE IT!
HTH,
Crazy ('bout harp!) Bob (who is FINALLY learning how to CHUG!)