pharpo
769 posts
Mar 29, 2015
8:23 AM
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I have noticed recently that my style of play differs from others I hear. I have a few friends in my area that are pretty good players. One has a band - all blues - and Mike (The Harp player / singer).....always calls a few of us up to sit in for a few songs. What I noticed is that their styles are dominated by chords/ octaves / trills/ warbles....with a few single notes here and there. My style is completely opposite. My playing is dominated by single notes with chords/warbles/ octaves thrown in . I also seem to play more rhythm in the background. The audience seems to like all of our different styles. Are there names for these different styles ? I feel I should know this ......but.......no. Your thoughts.....
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hvyj
2674 posts
Mar 30, 2015
5:45 PM
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You don't provide enough information to enable a style to be ascribed to what you describe.
But, FWIW, after 35 years or so of fooling around with playing diatonic harmonica, I have come to the conclusion that the instrument's most limiting factor is not the lack of a 12 tone chromatic scale, but the inability to "build" chords. We are stuck with the primitive chords and chord fragments that are available on the instrument.
What this means as a practical matter is that it is much easier to fit harp to a wider variety of musical material if one does not play a lot of chords. Single notes played as scales, modes or arpeggios will fit in many musical contexts where what I have sometimes called the "choo-choo train" approach just won't work because the chords don't fit the music being played by the rest of the band.
Now, if one is not interested in playing anything but gut bucket blues it may not be that important. But if you like to play in other idioms with good musicians, you can do alot more with single notes. Also easier to play multiple positions if you you are not addicted to playing chords. But, this is just my own opinion based on my own experiences. YMMV.
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pharpo
770 posts
Mar 31, 2015
9:16 AM
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hvyj- Thanks for your input it is valued ! I do play other types of music. I began many years ago playing along with Neil Young and Bob Dylan stuff....Then in an acoustic group that played that type of music. I also played a little Bluegrass. I has only been the last six or seven years that I began to play a lot of blues. It just struck me as odd that my three harp playing friends and I had such different approaches.
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The Iceman
2355 posts
Mar 31, 2015
9:34 AM
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You're ahead of the game if you have an individual style and the audience enjoys it.
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The Iceman
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isaacullah
2974 posts
Mar 31, 2015
10:27 AM
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I think hvyj hit the nail on the head with his post. Every harmonica player that I can think of who plays mainly single note style is/was also interested in music beyond the Blues. I love Blues, and I love playing it. But I also love other music, and so I, too, have developed a mainly single-note style of playing.
I'd add in that playing alternate tunings, and, thus, having available different chords for different music, is also part of that process for some of us (including me).
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Last Edited by isaacullah on Mar 31, 2015 10:27 AM
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pharpo
771 posts
Mar 31, 2015
10:36 AM
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I have not progressed into alternate tunings other than natural minors. But there is a lot of time for that....I recently retired.
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Spderyak
8 posts
Apr 03, 2015
5:56 AM
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I have noticed much the same, so I don't know if it would be described as "old style" and "new style" of playing. Often I think people just say oh that is so and so's style or something like that.
If it is thought of as 'old style' or something along those lines it seems a lot of lyrics need to be updated, because when we went to a local best blues show. It was a lot of chords and wah wahs solo's but it was the vocals that had the women headed for the door. Sometimes lyrics like.. the woman I love I won the week before last...just doesn't make it..
So I tend to like single notes, limited vocals. I suppose the Thunderbirds might be an example of that style.
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