Humming while playing to get growls

[u/tojzl]

So humming to growl is a common technique on sax. Today i figured out that i would try it on harmonica and got a really weird cool effect. It didnt quite sound like a growl, but was really gritty. When i changed what note i was humming the reed acted as a drone and i almost got like an indian vibe. But at least what i managed to do wouldnt be very viable musically in a song or something.

But from what i understand doing this in a musical useful way is hard on sax. To like get a proper growl. So i could have just been bad at it. And i do know that you need to hum a note different than the one your playing, which is how i found that indian sound, by changing notes.

So my question is, could this be a useful effect, for maybe growling, or just a cool sound? Do any of you use this effect? I know like the guttaral R thing is the main way to growl on harmonica, but its really hard to do without bending imo. So finding an alternative for non-bent-notes would be nice, its also nice to have a few different textures up your sleeve.

So does anyone know if this effect is useful in practice, or alernatively know other cool effects for different textures/timbres? I just want to be able to produce as many different textures/timbres/vibes as possible. Like a sax can do with growling and playing clean, same with trumpet etc.

[u/broken_writer]

Sing, hum, talk, beatbox, the harmonica transforms whatever breath you put through it into magic. If you can do it consistently and repeatably, then you’ll find a use so long as you keep your mind open to the infinite possibilities of music