@WVT sounded just fine to me, You kept it going nicely and each verse was different. I'd be pleased with a performance like that but, I think the guys on here may say it sounded a bit clinical and needed to be dirtied up a bit with some chords, octaves and some slurring but all in all, I thought it was fine.
Given how hard an instrument the harp is to play well, a nice solid achievement.
My five cents worth, if you want to take it to the next level, learn to tongue block. Tooka was right; chords, octaves and don't forget tongue slaps. Rick Estrin has some good instructional material which talks about playing before or after the beat, too. Some work on articulation wouldn't go astray either. ---------- Lucky Lester
Last Edited by on Oct 15, 2012 5:03 AM
You need to work on your blues intonation. You are moving the song just fine, but it is too straight. You need to add "blue" notes. It all sounds very major and sing song when you play so straight...
I'm always a fan of accuracy and control over the harmonica; this is the foundation for everything else you will ever play. You have this.
I'm also a fan of using ones ears to figure a song out. It sounds like you learned this from a tab and are just reciting it. I mean no offense by this. If I am right, it may be food for thought to break away from this method of learning.
Having spent a large portion of my time developing and playing very accurately and cleanly, the best change I made was to dirty my playing up.
Let air bleed in to an adjacent hole. Use some kind of vibrato whether it be throat, tongue, diaphragm. Work on you attack or articulation as didjcripey mentions. This would involve tonguing notes to break it up a bit more.
Again, you have, what I consider to be, some of the best fundamentals. These will aid you considerably, but can hurt you too. Don't be afraid to challenge yourself. You played well, but there is a lot more than just playing it well or "correctly".
First off, great job! I will, however, second the advice given by KingoBad and ridge. You've got the notes down, and they are in time and go with the track, and all, but it all sounds to "Souza Band", straight-time, clean. It needs to swing a bit more, an to get dirty from time time to time. You especially need to try to make your "response" portions of the "call and response" dirtier and more different from the "call". There needs to be variation in that coupling...
Of course, these are things that I too struggle with, so I feel your pain for sure! :) I'm glad you put this out there, as that's the only way to keep getting better! You are well on your way!
Nice practice session Tom...Continue to keep mindfully and meditatively exploring the pure profound beauty of those longer held notes in that tune - see if you can even play them with more relaxation,roundness,depth and feeling...That is a great way to strengthen the muscles in your brain, face,mouth,throat etc...Which will set you up for success when you want to embellish the song with other techniques.
Last Edited by on Oct 16, 2012 6:01 AM
