Obviously there are a ton of amazing rack players who have some incredible skills on guitar and harp; I got to hear Jimi Lee at the last SPAH conference which blew me away... but I'm wondering if people have tried or seen any different instrument combos with the rack? Theoretically, any instrument which requires one or two hands and allows for a free head should be fair game. Has anyone tried harmonica with cello, or piano? I've tried concertina (which is difficult to concentrate on simultaneously) and also the kalimba, which actually I think sounds pretty cool. Here's a little video I made. If anyone has any of their own interesting instrument combos to share, please send the link! Or if you know any other players who've tried it.
Thanks so much for reading guys, I am new to the harmonica community (not new to harmonica) so I would like to learn as much as I can from you guys, because I've realized when I went to the last SPAH conference just how much knowledge this community has to share!
I do mandolin and harp together, it's a wild sound, kinda like a fiddle! I can do harp and piano too, as long as I don't have to play lines on the piano-- Are you the guy at SPAH who had the chromatic kalimba?
Here are some with me on keys, harp on a rack, drums on my feet and one with the black cat mojo slide guitar and 1 man band. These are inspired from my time backing Champion Jack Dupree. Basically I sat on the piano bench next to him and he would slap the mic my way to play the harp. I learned the piano from watching his hands on those gigs along with the time I spent with Wilbert Harrison. When you figure out enough instruments you don't need no stinkin band :-) Walter
---------- walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year in the Tunnel of Dreams Studio. " life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
Neat idea with the Kalima! I do it some with my Ukulele's, as well as with a little korg synth. I'm a shit rack player though, so I do more looping than rack playing. ----------
Not sure why no video thumbnail appeared for my comment...? I copied and pasted the link. Any trick I'm missing... Trying again... http://youtu.be/zP4iPyyYn2M?list=UUvT4tzXiYlEqEkzejvXlQtw
holy cow, Dave. very impressive! I find fiddle very difficult on it's own and you are playing busy parts on both. looks pretty crowded in that area with beard, rack and fiddle all vying for space
Thanks so much everyone this is some incredible stuff, and gives me a lot of ideas for things to work on! Those high mandolin notes really go well with harp. And that concertina player is so precise, and is using the harmonica with a totally different style. I really am glad I got to see these videos, and David that is such an amazing combination with harmonica and violin! But something else really interesting is that crazy foot pedal bass note contraption. Can you tell me where I could get one of those? It looks so awesome!!! Its really inspiring hearing how well you harmonize/synchronize the harmonica and violin at parts of the song. I was considering picking up a spare viola to learn, but I wasn't sure if it would be realistically possible to combine with harp. Now I know it works so I'm going to try it out! By the way, I have some difficulty being so precise with the notes on rack, because I find that the rack slides around on my neck, jostling it around a bit while I play. How do you keep that from happening during a performance?
Last Edited by Cabbage on Oct 13, 2014 9:00 PM
Thanks guys! Yeah, it is hard, no doubt! I first tried fiddle and harp together in the late 70s, playing American & Celtic fiddle tunes. For some reason I gave up on it or forgot about it. I started doing it again in the early 90s when I started doing my one man band, more in a blues context. I've never seen anyone else do it (although I'm sure someone has). It does take a lot of concentration. Also, the fiddle wants to slide around a bit. It's a bit of a compromise with the fiddle held like that (as opposed to under the chin). The fotdella (foot operated bass) adds to the difficulty and it took quite awhile to get comfortable with all of them together. The bass is home-made too, you can't just go out and buy one. Anyway, glad to hear it is inspiring!
Here's a hillbilly blues (by Big Bill but hopped up). No fotdella but I used a few instruments on this with harp as the bridge instrument (allowing the changes to happen without it getting too empty).
Here are a couple videos of Mr. Chuck Rejto playing chromatic harp in a rack with a specially designed and built pedal that presses the button. There is more information and photos of the pedal system on my web sight.
---------- Greg Jones 16:23 Custom Harmonicas greg@1623customharmonicas.com 1623customharmonicas.com
