Better than Jagger on all counts. Vocals, harp, looks, lips. Only thing I'd give Jagger is the songwriting.
One thing about all these vocalists who take a turn on harp I don't understand is why they sound so sloppy. Tyler is quite good in my opinion, but a little bit of practice wouldn't go amiss.
Can't some of the pros here offer their services for the good of harmonica kind?
Here's an example introductory email:
Dear Mick / Steve (delete or add as appropriate),
I thought I'd extend an offer of my services to you.
I'm a huge fan and love your band and their wealth of hits and particularly love your fine vocal talents and stage presence.
However, after hearing your harmonica playing I feel you have taken the most rudimentary mechanics of playing the harmonica and applied the same ethos to your technique. In other words:
Your harp playing sucks. It also blows.
I'd like to take the opportunity to offer to provide a solution to your poor embouchure, your over use of chords and to teach you that a harmonica actually has ten holes instead of six.
I'd also like to mention that you need to refrain from your extensive overuse of the 5 hole draw, particularly when you attempt to employ bends to this note. It does not bend down a complete semitone and make a dissonant and unpleasant sound which makes me think your are feasting on a small furry forest creature and the sound produced is it's pitiful begging screams to be extricated from your full and voluminous lips.
Please consider my kind offer. You are but a small step away from 'harmonica heaven'.
Regards
.............
(Sorry peeps. I just had to get it out of my system. Heh)
Last Edited by on Mar 31, 2012 7:13 AM
Mick jagger should give it up because it detracts from his stage presence. If he can't do harmonica on a level similar to his other talents. He pulls off a brilliant frontman routine. No one else could do what he does or has done. His harp playing at the whitehouse was painful to watch. I mean really he sounded like someone does after a month of learning. And considering his long history of performance he should have had better sense.
Steven Tyler while not as great as some guys who are huge in tge harp world. He still sounds good and pulls it off. He plays it well enough that one could say he is better than a lot of other people
There is a far cry between the two.
Last Edited by on Mar 31, 2012 7:40 AM
He's not bad. He's what I'd call a solid intermediate player, based on what's been posted here; some might say that he's got one foot in the advanced intermediate category, or at least a few toes. He's got decent tone, a good sense of time, a decent set of licks, and a very good sense of when to use what he's got. What he doesn't have is quite enough sense of the blues pitches--he's not bad, just not optimized--and of course he's a pure lip purser, so he's missing a whole side of the instrument. In some ways he's the model of a decent pure lip purser who might convince the uninitiated that he's a great harp player rather than what he is: a good harp player. He's certainly not anybody I'd spend any time running down. The trick bag he's got works well in the context in the loud rock context in which he's deploying it.
Last Edited by on Mar 31, 2012 10:30 AM
My post was leaning more on the humour than the actual sentiment of the post.
Personally, I think Tyler's great. Four decades of performing, he's still doing it and his vocals are sublime even now. My point is more to do with the little annoyances we all spend time and trouble to put right that these guys don't seem to be interested in sorting out.
I don't think it would take much for him to become a vocalist / harmonicist, rather than the singer who 'squirts harp' every now and again.
I'll take Steven Tyler's harp playing over the million Bob Dylan wannabe's I see all the time. I'll even take his harp playing over that I hear in many "blues" bands playing in untold numbers of bars all across the country... He's quite decent.
That being said, I don't own any of his music, nor do I like it very much. But I'm a total music snob, so that's of little consequence...
Ive seen his harp being sold and never thought about he would sound good at all,But i liked what I heard ,I wish i was that good,Heck you can get a bar of drunk people ,really going with less than that,heck aint that what its about;-)And he looks like he enjoys it ---------- Hobostubs
Last Edited by on Mar 31, 2012 8:12 PM
It's just one component of the performance. He's got the look, he's got the voice, he's got the moves, AND he's got the name, AND he's playing in front of a bunch of Steven Tyler fans.
@billy_shines: I don't think it's fair to characterize British blues as not "real blues." For what it's worth, Aerosmith released a blues tribute album, Honkin' on Bobo (2004), the cover for which is a picture of a harmonica.
Mick Jagger, Bruce Springsteen, Steven Tyler, Neil Young, John Sebastian Jr., all play harp as part of their performance. But none of them are well known for playing harp. They are better known or famous as singers, songwriters and performers, the harp is just part of the act. As such, you don't compare them to James Cotton, Rod Piazza, MIke Nazerenko, Paul Lamb, Jason, Adam, etc., who are well known as harp players. BTW, John Sebastian Sr. was a well known harmonica player.
Now consider this, how would you rate Musselwhite, Cotton, McCoy, RJ, Jason and other harp players as singers?
Last Edited by on Apr 01, 2012 5:56 PM
i take your point, but you erred in lumping john sebastian jr. in with the first camp. i've seen him sit in with hot tuna, and he's a fine harp player.
Sebastian did if that's who you're referring to. He did it under the pseudonym of G. Puglese to avoid contractual issues.
I was trying to find the segment of the episode of Two and a Half Men where Steven Tyler guest starred as Charlie's nextdoor neighbor, and the feud they get into over Steven practicing his harp out on the back porch. No dice on YouTube. :-( ---------- Hawkeye Kane
