Posted: Wed Oct 05, 2022 1:11 pm Post subject: Potato Head Blues: Growling high B at 2:19min ?
Dear fellow trumpeters,
I have a playing technique question. I'm trying to copy Louis Armstrong's famous solo on potato head blues. I'm so amazed how carefully crafted this solo is and how fantastically well it is executed by Armstrong. There is in particular one thing where I have no clue how he manages to produce the sound he produces.
He plays a growling high B (above the staff) and I have no idea how he does it. I tried growling it, flutter tongue, and vibrating my soft palate in some weird ways, but at this high a note I either don't manage to execute the latter two techniques, or the growl I do (either singing a note or grunting from the back of my throat) doesn't have any effect on the timbre of the note. I should say that the high B comes pretty easy to me, but I don't manage to put this effect onto it.
Does anybody manage to get this sound, and if so, what technique do you actually use?
Joined: 22 May 2007 Posts: 2654 Location: Anacortes, WA
Posted: Wed Oct 05, 2022 1:59 pm Post subject:
Sounds like what happens to me when I miss the note slightly and it blips upwards instead of sustaining the correct tone. Pretty sure that wasn't on purpose. Comments? _________________ Richard
that's one way of seeing it. To my ear, it sounds intentional though. And this note sounds sooo good and wild that I find it difficult to believe that this was an accident. His trumpet sound in general seems to me very 'resonant' in the sense that he seems to have a tremendous amount of control by just manipulating the size of the oral cavity and I guess he can produce this growling sound somehow intentionally, I just don't know how.
Maybe there are other opinions? Does anybody manage to produce such a high B growl?
I'm referring to the first note of measure 105, which sounds to my ears not like a rip, but more like a growl/flutter tongue. On the other hand, the note in measure 109 is clearly a slur or rip.
Measures 105 and 109 are the “high school” high B measures.
The first B he went for sounded to me like his mind was ready but his chops weren’t quite prepared. Then four measures later he kinda says, “Here’s the way that note is supposed to sound.”
Then in bar 115 he’s saying, “See there, it wasn’t so high after all” while he makes it sound easy.
I have used this solo for years to teach students about rhythms. If you look at the rhythm of the first measure of his solo break, you don’t see that rhythm ever again in the remainder of his solo.
In fact, the only duplications of rhythms are in bars 99 and 100, then again in 119 and 121.
Now, you could say bars 110 and 126 are the same rhythm, and that’s sorta true.
The point is, Pops naturally cooked up different rhythms throughout as his natural way of playing.
Many of the strings-of-eighth-note cats these days could learn a whole lot from studying Louis Armstrong. _________________ Puttin’ On The Ritz
Joined: 09 Oct 2012 Posts: 722 Location: Hereford, UK
Posted: Thu Oct 06, 2022 11:34 am Post subject:
To me it sounds like he really did growl that note. The spectrum of growl techniques is really difficult to think about in concrete terms so I won't attempt any detailed speculations as to how he did it but it sounds relatively 'non-vocal' if that makes sense. Here's my attempt at imitating it: https://youtu.be/oAtzCT-7TY8
To me it sounds like he really did growl that note. The spectrum of growl techniques is really difficult to think about in concrete terms so I won't attempt any detailed speculations as to how he did it but it sounds relatively 'non-vocal' if that makes sense. Here's my attempt at imitating it: https://youtu.be/oAtzCT-7TY8
Mike
Thanks a lot Mike, for the sample, that's great. I think also that he meant to hit the note like that, because it sounds too awesome for it to be just a nearly missed note. With your example in mind, I'll try to growl that note. I'll start with a lower note and then work myself up. Maybe it is possible after a few weeks of practicing.
Joined: 09 Oct 2012 Posts: 722 Location: Hereford, UK
Posted: Sat Oct 08, 2022 10:08 am Post subject:
hvtrumpet wrote:
Thanks a lot Mike, for the sample, that's great. I think also that he meant to hit the note like that, because it sounds too awesome for it to be just a nearly missed note. With your example in mind, I'll try to growl that note. I'll start with a lower note and then work myself up. Maybe it is possible after a few weeks of practicing.
You're welcome - I think it's well worth persisting with and would be interesting to hear how it goes.
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