playing fast is all about breathing lightly through the harmonica. Start with hitting the same note (blow or draw) twice then three times... if you have a heavy breath attack it will sound more like TA TA when you articulate the notes. Less heavy is DA DA and light is HA HA. When I play fast run it's all with a HA HA type of attack.
Triplets is one thing that helps getting into 'playing fast'. For instance 2 draw, 2 bend all the way and 1 is the triplet that is the most 'obvious' to me.
These triplets can be played all over the harp. Learn to play them up and down in your sleep and playing fast will be no problem.
This is the only technique of playing fast that I know of. It's basically the Jason Ricci approach. His vids have all the information (packaged in awesome music).
Does anybody know of other 'playing fast' techniques?
Years ago now I heard a harmonica player with a good band who played like a lead guitar and it blew me away. His name is John Popper and the band was Blues Traveler. I dont know where they are at now,maybe passed on, but their BT4 has got to be a classic, even if you dont like his tone.
Thanks Buddha I've never looked at it that way. Right now I am using a Suzuki Overdrive it's the most responsive harmonica to me. GermanHarpist I am on the Gussow/Ricci method now. Working on playing that fast riff at the end of his video. Also Popper still doing his thing. ---------- myspace.com/theblacknote
I've always found it easy to play triplets fast but much harder to play sixteenth-notes fast. That's because I've been working on fast triplets for three decades and have spent almost no time training my reflexes, or my melodic imagination, to play four notes per beat.
It was sitting down with Jason in 2000 and having him actually show me a few of his 1/16 note riffs that made me realize just how huge a gap there actually was in my ability to play fast.
So the first thing you need to do is assess your actual strengths and weaknesses.
I've got to run now but will say more later. My most recent YT video (181) has some fast pattern-practice stuff at the very end (9:30-10:00). I've been working on some other things and am enjoying the challenge.
One thing I'll say is: playing fast patterns isn't the same as making music at high speed. BUT: playing fast patterns can prepare you to make music at high speed. It can put some things into your chops-repertoire that will let you suddenly create something else you've never played when the moment is right.
"One thing I'll say is: playing fast patterns isn't the same as making music at high speed. BUT: playing fast patterns can prepare you to make music at high speed. It can put some things into your chops-repertoire that will let you suddenly create something else you've never played when the moment is right."
That's exactly why I didn't mention triplets or patterns. I like to start with note doubling. You can sound very musical and fast by playing the same thing you normally play with doubled notes. I like to teach fast playing as a technique rather than music thus, how I described it above.
I've found that learning riffs involving three or four notes that can repeated over and over at any speeds really help me build up speed and energy. Eventually you lean to connect these riffs together and make triplet runs. Also, learning to just play fast in the first 2 holes can be amazingly helpful when you learn other fast riffs. When you play something fast down the harp, being extremely familiar with the first two holes can make it easy to continue the riff and turn it back up the harp for a longer riff. ---------- "Without music, life would be a mistake" -Nietzsche
Thanks for the feedback everyone. I understand where Gussow is coming from as far as musicality. Yet Buddha could you explain doubling up a bit more, is it terms of phrasing? Patrick I love the two hole run theory. ---------- myspace.com/theblacknote
Great thread. Thanks to Buddha for the advice on articulation. Years ago, my inability to master anything at speed was a major contributor to my throwing in the towel.
Those little revelations that come up from to time from kudzu, Buddha, Ricci and Shellist - have I left someone out? - continue to inspire and improve my playing.
Thanks guys. ---------- 'If it sounds GOOD to you, it's bitchen; if it sounds BAD to YOU, it's shitty' - Frank Zappa
I think it's all the same. Just different methods of teaching. In my experience beginner try to progress too quickly and that leaves gapping holes in their foundation. So my teaching methods are designed to build solid foundational techniques.
I'm not so worried about playing fast. I just want to rock. And swing. And shuffle. And boogie. Slow's fine. Fast comes with practise.
I want to do a tongue roll though. That's bugging me. I've been trying for 40 years. Is there such a thing as the tongue-roll gene or chromosome and do I lack it?
Select the link 'Diatonic Techniques & Examples' then scroll down a little. ---------- 'If it sounds GOOD to you, it's bitchen; if it sounds BAD to YOU, it's shitty' - Frank Zappa
here'sa more advanced method I use with my students to teach them how to play fast.
Get yourself a drum book and work on paradiddles.
L = Blow R = Draw
At first don't pay attention to scales or notes.
If a paradiddle is LLRL play it like this: 1b 2b 3d 4b Every L is a new blow hole and every R is a new draw hole.
Another really good exercise 1b 2d 3b 4d 5b 6d 7b 8d 9b 10d and then back down 10b 9d 8b 7d 6b 5d 4b 3d 2b 1d
Use this with the "HA" note articulation and your speed chops will develop in a hurry.
I've been meaning to make a youtube on this for almost a year but I've been so busy building harps, I just don't have time.
Here are links to single, double and triple paradiddles http://www.harmonicapros.com/music-tools/single.jpg http://www.harmonicapros.com/music-tools/doubleparra.jpg http://www.harmonicapros.com/music-tools/tripparra.jpg
Last Edited by on May 18, 2009 6:48 AM
Very good and interesting stuff, Chris. Those are demanding patterns, in neural-pathway terms; they will very quickly break a blues player out of familiar terrain. Now, they're not MUSICAL, per se, except insofar as they drill even tempo sequential-izing (if that's a word) of blow and draw process intersecting with sideways-movement process. But they certainly look to my eyes like a radical first step in achieving freedom on the harp.
One thing I've discovered as I teach is that each student takes whatever new thing you throw at him and translates it into his own language--meaning gets it wrong, in ways large and small, that have to do with the particular grooved patterns that player already possesses. So I teach students to pay especially close attention to the seemingly small differences between what I'm playing and what they're playing, since those places, where their reflexes force them to "get it wrong," are precisely the places where they need to break through. That's where the growth is. I hold myself to the same standard. When I try to play something new, somebody else's stuff, I pay close attention to the stuff I SHOULD be able to get right away but for some reason can't. That's where my growth will be. I've skipped some developmental step in my playing. The new lick I'm trying to copy is gracing me with a revelation about exactly what I'm lacking, exactly what my current musicianship has left underdeveloped.
Of course it's important to start slow and gradually speed up. I tell students to slowly push to the point where the thing begins to fall apart. Then back off 10% and see if it's easier. It's exactly the same principle as speed training in running: you never push to 100% of max, or almost never, because relaxation is key. But you have to push almost to the breaking point to find out where it is, then back off and discover the pocket where you experience your own power, rather than your own desperate inability to quite keep up.
If you work that 95% zone, and the 85% zone, eventually the 95% zone becomes your 90% zone and you've almost magically developed....speed. You've got more speed headroom than you used to.
It's also important, sometimes, to slow way down, deliberately choosing a slower tempo than you could handle, in order to work on developing musical complexity--bebop reflexes, if you will, where you're picking and choosing from a wider palette of moves, possible go-to points, than you'd ever be able to execute at a faster speed. This is a GREAT way to practice. I should do it more!
I'm not the most experienced player, but one way I can fake playing fast is to use the air in my mouth, not my lungs, to blow and draw. I push my tongue rapidly to the front of the harp, pushing air out, then do the same in reverse to hit a draw note. I can replicate some of Charlie McCoy's Orange Blossom Special that way. I also used it years ago in a spirometer test (lung function.) You were supposed to blow into a tube until the dot on the monitor hit a line, then inhale until it went down to another line. You repeated it as fast as you could for 30 seconds. 100% was supposed to be a great score that most people other than athletes couldn't achieve. I did 500%.
Bump. I just came across this thread and bumped it for anyone who didn't see it before regarding the acquisition of speed on the diatonic harmonica. The discussion between Chris and Adam is very good, and over all there are excellent ideas here. ---------- Ted Burke http://youtube.com/watch?v=-VPUDjK-ibQ&feature=relmfu
both ricci and popper said they practiced triplets obsessively.
popper said you get a friend to stand on the side of the road and to hold out a harp and play it while you drive by in a ferrari slowly, gradually increase the speed till you can do it at 200mph
People generally play fast by using embellishments. That might be something like triplets or pardidlles (Jason and Chris) or chunks of scale patterns (Popper and Blue). Generally, this is the path of least resistance.
The key to using this in a song, IMO, is how they are used. In the styles of those listed above, those actions usually create the path between musical ideas. If you Google the world's fast harmonica player, you'd see less playing around sonic shapes and more just making noise to play fast.
Personally, I think embellishing melodic ideas is the best approach (see the intro to Blues Traveler's RunAround) instead of playing fast patterns that don't go anywhere (see most of the solo in RunAround). If you find live versions of that tune, the outro solo is also way melodic, but very fast. ---------- Custom Harmonicas Optimized Harmonicas
I think Chris was more saying work on your breath patterns to increase speed, so if you get the mechanics down then you could eventually make it melodic. Jason has also been a pretty strong advocate of learning scales so that you can do the sheets of notes thing in addition to triplets. mike i basically agree with what you said...
I've been really sick the last two weeks including missing a fair amount of work. I finally tried to get back to some really harp playing. I was out of breath about two bars in, lol.
It made me feel really old (physically). Like being a retired athelete and trying to jump right into a college game again or something. I had couldn't play anything fast at all.
I instead went on YouTube to check out some fast playing as this thread was on my mind. I again found that, whether it is your thing or not, examples of people using scales and patterns as embellishments between phrases (and not just running up and down).
Here is an example. I am NOT posting it for anything other than referencing the use of speed riffs as bridges between other lines. I am not saying this is the most musical, bluesy, awesome, whatever-whatever.
Popper does a great solo here.. I especially like the very last few notes where he throws a bit different scale in there.. man i would love to be able to play that clean and fast. But the hours it would take and may still never get there...
The other thing that strikes me is the guitar solos.. They are all capable of moving very quickly using runs between core notes, and the bar is so damn high for guitar players.. Landreth and Margolin are great, but I hear so much of this it does not do much for me, but something about the way that Trucks plays just sends shivers up my spine.. an even more important characteristic than being able to play technically fast, hit all the right notes and throwing some melodic element in there.
An essential thing for a lot of us to cop to is that fast harmonica playing is exciting when the right harp player is doing it and playing fast as well can well put the player into a euphoric state. Think Coltrane, think Freddie Hubbard, think Allan Holdsworth; what's more interesting in these players is not when they play choose to play fast but rather how they've turned an accelerated approach to improvisation into a seamless kind of spontaneous composition. Speed for the sake of speed is perfectly okay in my book, provided the player has a distintinguishing expressive genius that marks he or her as more than mere technocrat. ---------- Ted Burke http://youtube.com/watch?v=-VPUDjK-ibQ&feature=relmfu
