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Vibrato/Tremolo Effect

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shubhendu_pal:
[From the post of Winslow Yerxa and Bluesy, http://www.slidemeister.com/forums/index.php?topic=6791.msg80189#msg80189
http://www.slidemeister.com/forums/index.php?topic=6791.msg80704#msg80704]

Vibrato includes anything that will make a sustained note undulate - put a wave in it. Some folks sort these effects into two piles, once called tremolo and the other called vibrato. Distinction between vibrato (pitch variation) and tremolo (variations in volume) is not well defined however.

A vibrato effect can be generated in variuos way.

Hand vibrato can be by forming both hands into cup-like shapes, and then bringing them together to enclose the harmonica and moving the non-holding hand away to oen up the sound. Do this at a regular rate, and you get a wave in the tone. You can do this subtly with small hand movements, or get an exaggerated effect with big movements.

You can also move your tongue in your mouth, similar to saying "yayayayayaya" to create another type of vibrato effect called tongue vibrato.

You can do a sort of mild cough sound for throat vibrato. This give the throbbing vibrato that can also involve flattening the pitch of the note slightly on each pulsation, which some folks claim is part of the definition of vibrato.

Then there's the sort of belly-laugh like vibrato that's also called dipahgragm vibrato.

You can also do a controlled shake of the harmonica itself, and between you and me, along with "throat" vibrato, most players employ this too, for it is quite controllable and produces a pretty acceptable vibrato, especially for the little note-end-shake that you are interested in.

Hand vibrato changes the tonal color and loudness of a note.
Tongue vibrato changes the tone color and can also change pitch slightly.
Throat vibrato changes intensity and can also change pitch.
Diaphragm vibrato changes intensity.

Bluesy:
I'll go along with that. You might add that a rapid nanny-goat tremolo is unattractive, a'la some 1930s French vocalists. Also, that because  pitch alteration on the chrome takes quite some skill, that which we call vibrato is more likely a regulated, slow tremolo and not a true vibrato, or perhaps a mixture of both. But what difference does it make as long as it's beautiful, varied in speed and intensity, and not overdone?
I don't like tongue-"vibrato". It's excessively harsh and a lot too vocal. Hand vibrato seems to be falling out of favor among modern players. The vibrato I learned as a flute player is a combination of diaphragm and throat pulsations, and is probably the most legitimate of all the methods. Hard to do on the draw, but learnable.

rusty:
The jaw can also be used to give the effects you describe, is easy to learn on both draw and blow and when done with taste sounds pretty good. It effects air flow as well as tone and possibly pitch so is a mixture of vibrato and tremolo IMO

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