It's the height of summer here in the great white north (Canada) and time for some front porch playing. Here's a couple of tunes I've been woodshedding for a while. Just me, harp, voice and foot. Acoustic. Recorded on my phone. Any constructive advice appreciated.
Feel free to join me on the virtual front porch and offer some tunes of your own.
Well, I managed to mess up the playlist and put Take This Hammer in there twice. Have now fixed it and added Eyesight to the Blind. Thanks for listening. ----------
Nice work, Mr. S&S. I like your tone and I like these solo blues harp/vocal songs. Great thread idea. It's always interesting to see what other people are up to. BronzeWailer's YouTube
Thanks, BronzeWailer and Steamrollin Stan for your kind words. I enjoy trying to arrange songs as solo pieces. That forces me to both sing and come up with harp fills and solos. I'm improving at both, I think.
I also repeat my invitation for others post some "front porch" style recordings here. Keep it simple. No need to get fancy about it. ----------
Just had a focused listen to both tracks, things like this are good exercise in effects and getting some tone into a mood, I've been soooo unfocused in the last 12 months I believe my harp taste buds are coming back, :)
Very fine singing and playing both of you! Great thread idea! I'm on the road visiting family right now but I'll shed something and try to post later. ---------- Pistolkatt - Pistolkatts youtube
Thanks Pistolcat. Look forward to your contribution.
@Bruce. Yeah, I tend to start off tapping then give it up half way through. I should learn to keep it up! Cheers. BTW, would love to hear your take on this! BronzeWailer's YouTube
Nice one there BronzeWailer. I really like your vocal work. I know that you've been taking lessons. I've only had a few vocal lessons myself, but I sing most days when I'm practising harp and am noticing some improvement. It's a lot like learning harp actually. I'm now more familiar with my vocal instrument and am just learning to improvize with it. ----------
Thanks mr so&so. The singer teacher helps a lot. The voice really as a whole new instrument. I never realized how complicated the whole process was until I started taking lessons.
Hope you don't mind one without vocals. I'll work on one of those later. Am keeping fingers crossed that the sound quality isn't awful . . . this was straight into the "photo booth" doohickey on my ancient Macbook Pro
First time I've posted a vid of me playing . . . been seriously practicing harp for about 8 or 9 months now. But . . . I reckon I need to take another step out of the comfort zone (aka: the dogs being my sole audience)
Thanks Harp Study. Good on you Rontana. I'd say you're making solid progress after just 8 or 9 months. It's not easy but very useful to step out of that comfort zone, in my view. Cheers! BronzeWailer's YouTube
@Rontana, I'm glad you were inspired to join in. You sound like you are progressing very well. My advice would be to keep working this piece to smooth it out. If you keep it in your practice rotation until you don't even have to think to play it, you'll start reaping the benefits of being able to start introducing improvised variations without losing track of where you are in the tune. Nice work. ----------
In regard to harp (mostly because of starting at 55 years old) I've sort of adopted the Chinese proverb "Be not afraid of going slowly; be only afraid of standing still."
Harp is for certain something that takes years of work to sound half-decent . . . but luckily it's a hell of a lot of fun. ---------- Marr's Guitars
Over a decade's experience designing, building & playing Cigar Box Guitars
Thanks friends! I think I'll keep (practising my) singing. It's fun, it adds a dimension to the music and I'm improving. I sing a lot better with some monitoring, that's why I have headphones on. I couldn't make heads or tails from the third verse lyrics so I made some up.
@Rontana - I have a three year old video of that same lesson. I saw it again just now and the sound was remarkable same as yours.
@stme. - nice! Bringing the rhythm up on the porch! ---------- Pistolkatt - Pistolkatts youtube
I have been working on my version of a song Alan Lomax recorded in a prison. It really grabbed me. I made a demo for my guitar guys to learn. I also so it totally acoustically. Not happy with it but it's a work in progress, as is everything.
That's a killer song BW! I like your playing a lot. Right down were it needs to be. Great singing through the amp, too. It'll be killer with a (non-fancy) guitar and a mean stomp. ---------- Pistolkatt - Pistolkatts youtube
I did this as a solo at the end of one of our duo sets recently and my guitar guy liked it. Him on CBG or resonator, stomp and backing vox, I'm thinking, because the original had multiple voices.
Fine stuff, fellas, from all of you! Excellent idea for a thread, btw. Although it's way too hot here in Arizona to be sitting out on the porch, and I don't do much singing, I might have to record something acoustic and foot tapping, and join the party! ----------
Ok, I quickly recorded something after work today... It's roughly (and I stress, roughly based on "Key to the Highway". No singing yet, and (sorry!) no beatbox or anything. Just a little foot stomp. My laptop is broken, so I did it on my tablet, and the audio is just ok. It's not the greatest, so I've stuck it up on my dropbox rather than upload to my YouTube... I watched it back, and I feel like I really need to go back to work on my more traditional Blues playing styles again! I haven't done much Blues stuff in a long while...
This thread is very informative. Breaking things down to just the bare essentials -- harp, foot, and (maybe) voice -- doesn't disguise anything. It's all out there, and you can really get to hear the heart of the music. From the posts in this thread, I've learned:
@mr_so&so: A slow and steady rhythm and paring away excess notes can be extremely effective. That clearly comes with a lot of woodshedding of a piece, trying to get right to the soul of it. Nice!
@BronzeWailer: Espe. in your second piece: Having a tight rhythmic hook -- and hammering away at while trading off lyrics -- can keep a piece moving along, and hold interest the whole way. Very cool!
@RontanaBlues: Shows that having the courage to put oneself out there is the only way to progress. Well done, man! For 9 months, that's a great sound you've got, and your hard work is paying off...
@PistolCat: Tone and texture! This is a great example of adding dirt where necessary, and by intention, but playing very cleanly elsewhere. That's really great!
Finally, listening back to my own take, I'm mindful that, 1) Woodshedding a piece before trying a full take is important.this morning I played this basic piece again, and it sounded much better, so even just sleeping on it can be helpful. 2) Hit those notes cleanly! Add dirt only where necessary, and on purpose. 3) Stay on rhythm!!! Even when trying to change the dynamics of the piece, you have to stay on the beat. This is especially important in this kind of solo acoustic stuff. 4) Timing. The timing of the piece, in regards to the chord changes of this 8 bar blues was consistently off. It was audible, and very distracting. Hit the right note at the right time. 5) At least trying to sing as well would have made it more interesting. Even if my singing isn't great.
Anyway, hope that a few other folks join in. This is the kind of thread that MBH has been missing for a long while. It reminds me of what the forum used to be like in the early days. :)
EDIT: I forgot STME's entry! From that, I was reminded of the importance of groove. And swing! Nice job, man! ----------
I had the basic riff for this one (lifted from some guys singing in some old documentary) knocking around as an instrumental and had a couple of lines. A misremembered or misread Oscar Wilde quote: "Every saint has a past. Every sinner has a future." It got me thinking and writing anyway, and it seemed to fit with the tune, so I went from there. The rest of the lyrics finally took shape recently and I workshopped it with my singing teacher a couple of times. Now I can make my guitar guys learn it!
Nice job Isaac! I shed a lot before posting. My (take on) playing right now is playing simple stuff well with the best sound (tone, texture etc) rather than "flashy" stuff.
Great song again, BW! Your phone has a small trouble with containing your amp. Other than that, it was great. ---------- Pistolkatt - Pistolkatts youtube
Nice job Pistolcat. I like your harp tone. Keep up with the singing. I have realized that just like the harp, it is a journey, not a destination! Cheers!
BW: Reminds me a lot of the soundtrack to Oh Brother Where Art Though! Dig it, a lot! Wonder if the amped harp tone should be taken down a notch? The singing is so smooth, and the distortion is so high on the harp that it's a bit of a clash. But, still sounding damn good!
Pistolcat: Really mellow tone on that harp, man! And steady on with the beat. Yeah, singing is coming along too, especially for ESL (English as a Second Language). Digged it!
Here's what I've been up to the last little while:
It's the first of three original tunes I've been working up in Easy Third tuning. None of them are blues, but rather what I might call 'Indie', or, more specifically, 'Chillwave'. In case folks are interested, here's the gear rundown for this one:
Backing Loop: Leo Shi Bass harmonica through octave down + Cajon drum Solo: Hohner Special 20 in Easy Third tuning, key of G + delay and reverb. Mic: Behringer XM 8500 FX: Zoom G3 Looper: Vox 'Lil Looper Amp: Peavey Studio Pro.
Stereo audio just recorded through my camera (Nikon L830), which is why there are some 'clicks' throughout. ----------
Damn . . . you guys sound so good I'm almost reluctant to put this up.
"Almost" being the optimum word, since this is the best place I know of to really get constructive criticism (the closest open mics to where I live are 70 miles distant, one way).
So . . . here ya be.
(Edited: oh . . . I guess I should add that this is just recorded onto whatever the internal mic is on my elderly Macbook Pro . . . . I guess that makes it a McMic)
Hey guys! I'm gonna listen to your vids right now, but first, here's a kind of Country-Blues stomp I recorded last night... Fits in better with the theme of this thread than the last video I posted! :)
1847: Wow. Just wow! Wish I could hear the whole clip man! Lovely solo for that classic song... Excellent!
Rontana: Again, super kudos for putting it out there. I know full well what it's like to be trying to learn in isolation with no fellow harpists nearby to interact with. Posting youtube vids helped me a lot, and I think it's helping you. Some points of critique as to what you might focus on as you practice: You've got clean single notes, but the intonation isn't all there yet. That includes the naturals as well as the bent notes. Focus on keeping your head up more. Even a little tilt downwards will choke your airways, and your tone will tend to thin out. Also focus on playing single notes with a wide open jaw position. Just sit there and hold a single note while you mess with your head position and jaw and throat, while listening to what it does to your tone. You'll find the positions that work, and you'll notice it right away. Then, the trick is to keep in that position as you play! :) Bending intonation will take a little longer, but basically you do the same thing. Hit a bent note and mess with it while listening. You've got an ear on you already, so you'll know when it's in tune and sounding strong. Other than that, keep doing what you are doing. The melody playing is certainly coming along, and once you aren't thinking so much about the next notes (which comes in time) and your tone is up a bit, it'll be really great!! ----------
Second, thanks so much for taking the time to look at that video and for offering such great advice. The head position/airway suggestion isn't something I would have ever considered on my own (or even have thought to research . . . but it makes perfect sense now that you say it).
i tried to set up my phone so i can download to dropbox when i got to the end i hit enter, it said i was timed out and to start over, the heck with that.
so i am limited to what i can email, about 30 sec.
i am going to have dinner and listen to all the submissions.
