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nacoran
8619 posts
Aug 18, 2015
9:38 PM
There are different parts of being a performer. Sometimes they develop all at the same time, but sometimes they get late starts. I'm going to break down a few categories. Make more if you think they apply.

1. Well, this is a harp forum. In the last couple years, how much has your harping improved? Feel free to break it down into subcategories.

2. Some of us sing. How has your singing gone?

3. Some of us write lyrics. How as that gone?

4. Developed melodies?

5. Learned elusive theory or gained insights into how you play or insights into how you can teach and share about this instrument.

6. Stage presence. I've seen people go up and play mediocre, but they work the crowd well and they get liked. I've seen technically great bands annoy everyone (they show up with an entourage at an open mic and talk loudly through everyone else's set and then they leave as soon as they are done.

7. What are you getting out of the blues?

The last couple years I have come creeping out of the woodshed to at least think about jamming on something that I haven't learned cold; the fear of improve stabs at my very being. My harp playing has gotten more and more proficient, but I've found that the better I get the farther away what my changing view of what I want to be able to do gets.

Singing, I still stumble memorizing things way more than I should, but there are times now when I hear my voice recorded and I smile. (My asthma medicine slowly lowers my voice. Not necessarily a bad thing.)

My song writing is getting stronger, but I'm less diligent about regularly writing. I'm learning bits of theory here and there but still have most of it trapped in that part of the memory where it's something you know, not part of who you are.

The blues are keeping me alive inside. It's funny. I went through a stretch where all my daydreaming was about alien invasions or alternate realities with wizards and orcs. Blues has got me thinking about playing a great tune in front of the right person. It might still be far fetched, but it's fantasizing about something that could happen, and that means you can take steps towards it. We played a mediocre set tonight, but still got compliments. I could see what we were screwing up as it happened... a 3 song set expanded to 5 songs at the last second because it was a slow night. One song we had an out of date copy of the lyrics, another, where I sang, the lyrics were over by Dan and I couldn't see them. It was one of the 2 we were adding and I hadn't practiced it to have them nailed. The solution is have more songs nailed, and have more organized lyrics and communicate better on stage. Take a pause and work the crowd a bit. Ask the audience if the levels sound good.

3 years ago I was in a band where someone else was really leading things. It ran smoother, but it wasn't meant to be. One of the 'other' things I've had to develop, along with our guitar/bass player is just organizing things and running a band. As a band we are behind where we were three years ago, but as musicians we are way ahead. I'm a pretty confident singer and harper now, and Dan's gone from barely being able to sing to sounding an awful lot like Peter Gabriel.

The thing I've learned is musical talent trumps vocal talent. If you have the sense of pitch and rhythm you need to make music you can learn to sing, and it's important to let the people you are playing with share the creative load. Even if you think you know exactly how you want it to sound, listen to their idea first. Sometimes you'll still want to go your way, but a lot of times, especially if you surround yourself with creative people, you'll be surprised and on to something even better.

So, over the last few years, assess what you've been through. What has taught you the most, where have you improved the most, what are your strengths now?


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Nate
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First Post- May 8, 2009

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First Post- May 8, 2009
Komuso
633 posts
Aug 19, 2015
3:17 AM
>>The thing I've learned is musical talent trumps vocal talent.

Vocal talent IS musical talent, you're just playing your voice. It's one of the hardest instruments imo.


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Paul Cohen aka Komuso Tokugawa
HarpNinja - Learn Harmonica Faster
Bringing the Boogie to the Bitstream
Owen Evans
77 posts
Aug 19, 2015
8:33 AM
Mo Pitney can sing with the best of them! Thankyou for sharing this wonderful video.
nacoran
8620 posts
Aug 19, 2015
10:57 AM
Komuso, I agree. :)

There are good voices and there are bad voices, but someone with a 'good' voice can sing terribly if they don't take the time to learn, and someone with a terrible voice can sing just fine if they have taken the time.

I think there may be more outright prodigies on voice than other instruments. It's got some of the same advantages of the harmonica... you can take it anywhere and slip in some practice. My neighbor's granddaughter is 9 (maybe 10 now) and she's already sung the National Anthem at the local arena. But I've heard people who swear they can't sing learn to sing and be really, really good.
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Nate
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First Post- May 8, 2009
isaacullah
3063 posts
Aug 19, 2015
12:05 PM
Excellent topic, nacoran.

Over the last couple of years I feel like somethings have plateaued for me, while others have vastly improved. When I practice, the four things I constantly work on are: 1) tone, 2) improvisation, 3) groove and rhythm, and 4) musicality.

Improvements made in each of those categories:

1) Tone: I'm pleased with the progress I've made with tone in the last couple of years. I feel like I've naturalized the tuning of my mouth and throat across all holes of the harmonica, and that I have good control over a range of tones. I've worked a lot on hand technique as well, and feel like I've made great strides there. Learning to hold the harp like a megaphone, Dan Kaplan style, has made a HUGE difference in my tone. Tone is a moving target, and I'm still working on it, but I'm happy with where I'm at.

20 Improvisation: I play a lot of scales, from top to bottom of the harp. I consistently play in four different tuning layouts (standard richter, natural minor, dorian minor, and easy third), and I practice scales on all of these, in several positions. I focus on pentatonic scales, mostly, and I try to get fluid with them. I do scale jumps and box patterns. I feel pretty good with improvisation on these scales, but I'm still quite weak improvising over a full diatonic scale, let along a chromatic one. I've not got the chromatic bug, and don't mind changing harps or positions or tunings to make playing something easier in a different mode. Although I feel good with pentatonics, I do want to improve my diatonic improvisation, however.

3) Groove and rhythm: These are essential to me, as I love playing groove-based music. When I break free of "structured" practice, and do free-form playing, it's all about the groove for me. I'm trying to expand the number of grooves I can get into, and am always working on staying right in the pocket, timing-wise. I feel like I've really improved with this over the last couple of years, but I know there's a huge room to do better. What I'm doing now is playing harp in a groove while letting my other limbs (hands and feet) do other things. Lately, it's playing the cajon and tambourine, but also it's been hitting strums on the CBG, etc. I'm trying to free my body's metronome from my mind, which is proving hard to do. I feel like I'm getting there, however. Lot's more to do here...

4)Musicality: Some of the things I've gotten the hang of in the last couple of years include moving smoothly between notes ("bending into and out of them), controlling and learning when/how to apply vibrato, building tension and release in a piece of music, composing some tunes with a "real" chord structure, playing with others and learning to apply my harmonica skills to their musical visions, expanding my musical repertoire in general across genres, learning to play melodies by ear.

Things that haven't seen marked improvement are my song catalog (by that I mean "standards"), skill with controlling overblows and bends (these are all defintely "there", but not as good as they could be, and not with the best tone they could have), playing with a full band, composing lyrics (not that I could sing them), actually FINISHING a tune I set out to write, practicing old tunes I've written, performance ability.

Lots of stuff to work on, but also a lot of progress to be proud of. Thanks, Nate, for making me stop to think about it!
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jbone
2007 posts
Aug 20, 2015
3:04 AM
Great food for thought! The unexamined life is hardly worth living. Don't know who said that but it's true.

1)No earth shaking new developments, but maybe I've been learning to just let go and play more freely.

2)About 3 years ago I developed a polyp on one vocal cord. Had to NOT SING for 3 months after singing a lot for years. It was so hard to not sing! But once the polyp had re-absorbed into my body I had learned what caused it and eliminated that issue. Since then my voice has been more solid than ever. I have worked on phrasing and building drama vocally for a long time and it has been paying off. Side note, Jolene has been learning as well, and it's a pure joy to watch her progress as a vocalist as well.

3)Wrote some for the current cd, dusted off and rewrote some other originals. Going well. Already working out new material for the next cd project late this year!

4)I leave a lot of the nuts and bolts to Jolene music-wise and then fit a harp part in as we go along. Or sometimes I will begin singing something new and she will pick out the guitar backing, then I add harp stuff later after we mesh with guitar and vocals.

5) I am not a great teacher. Being an improviser and having taken few lessons and sort of gone an unorthodox route, I have very little language or structure to pass along to new players. I do give what I can though.

6)My stage presence has changed in recent years. Since my last two partners could not use straps and hold up guitars it has been natural to sit down with them to play. Matching chairs are cool. Simple metal folders custom painted! So while I don't leap around, I find that we both relay on our instruments and voices to establish presence. Busking has helped develop this as well. I think in a way it actually lends a sort of intimacy to performing since most places we play, the audience is sitting as well.

7) To me personally, blues is life blood, from an early age I found solace in hard times through the music. Blues was and is a refuge. Add to that, I and we have been developing as musicians and as a duo, and we get an indescribable fulfillment out of playing for people, and even out of playing and rehearsing and creating at home, knowing we'll be spreading the blues again soon. This fit well with our retirement plans, which involve hitting the road full time and being blues gypsies for some time.
Blues playing is a great way to transmute pain to joy and spread a positive and earthy message of hope and solace. Maybe that's what it's always done for me.

Great thread Nate!

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MindTheGap
644 posts
Aug 20, 2015
3:36 AM
Yes indeed. Great topic. I'm very interested to hear what other people focus on.

jbone - 'The unexamined life...', that's Socrates. I think you do a lot of reflecting, and sharing that is a helpful thing (for us reading it I mean).

Two years covers a large chunk of the time I've spent learning, so that covers a lot of the basics. I'll highlight three things that have been particularly important to me and might be of interest.

1. Hands
At some point it became clear how very important using hands are to the sound. I don't mean just wahs, tremolos and obsessing about a super-tight cup. I mean discovering that as soon as hands go anywhere near the harp, they shape the tone in rich, musical ways. Understanding that players I like to listen to use it all the time. I don't think the teaching materials talk enough about the possibilities available.

2. Snooky Pryor
During the two years, I switched from listening mostly to a short-list of the masters, to listening to a much wider range of players. Listening to LW all the time is inspirational but difficult to learn from - like trying to learn Grade 3 piano by listening to Prokofiev. Snooky Pryor started the ball rolling for me. He doesn't get much attention on MBH, but I immediately loved his playing because a. it sounds great (punchy, strong, full of gusto) b. he shows the way the on high-key harps c. it's accessible, in a way that LW isn't to an early-years player.

What did it teach me?
- That playing simple phrases with oomph can sound great. Better than trying to play lots of notes without oomph!
- How to attack a high-key harp.
- That some players made whole careers based on a relatively small set of trademark phrases. Being able to improvise effortlessly is a goal for the future. But, for right now, having a stock set of rip-snorting licks is a powerful thing.


3. Getting an Amplified Sound Together
This took a while, and is more a story about understanding how to use and adapt equipment rather than buying lots of equipment. I received specific help from a couple of MBH members and I'm very grateful indeed for that. The detail isn't interesting here, but it boils down to: it's quite easy to get a nice amped sound at home, not so easy getting that sound out playing a loud band, but it can be done and there are few ways to do it.

Last Edited by MindTheGap on Aug 21, 2015 3:15 AM
mr_so&so
927 posts
Aug 20, 2015
1:45 PM
Nate, thanks for the opportunity to reflect.

I'm generally happy with my continuing growth after seven years. I've really been focusing on second position, playing the whole harp and also breaking out of the blues scale, to major pentatonic, and diatonic. I'm learning gospel, country and Irish tunes. I'm getting much better at playing anything that comes into my head and improvising. I'm playing a lot with tongue blocking techniques to fill out my sound.

I'm singing a lot now and am seeing noticeable improvement there too. I'm also much better at playing harp fills and singing.

I'm arranging songs for solo performance, which I really enjoy, as well as writing my own material.

My biggest weak spot is the performance. I still get pretty nervous before performing in front of people. I don't do it much. That's my growing edge right now. In the near future, I'd like to get into a harp/guitar duo or larger acoustic ensemble.

I've taught myself enough music theory to understand what I'm doing. Now I'm working on not worrying about that and focusing on the more intangible aspects of musicality: groove, swing, phasing, dynamics, etc.
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mr_so&so
Komuso
634 posts
Aug 21, 2015
6:30 AM
Great thread!

1. Well, this is a harp forum. In the last couple years, how much has your harping improved? Feel free to break it down into subcategories.

I've been working hard on a lot of aspects of my playing the last couple of years.
All equally important and related, in no particular order:
tone control
breathing - especially light control
body awareness from diaphragm to tongue tip
Mental visualization of layouts & playing little mind note navigation melodies
Playing all 3 octaves
Jumps and leaps
Tuning my signal chain and FX patches
Playing in a rack - being more melodically inventive and also playing unison parts with slide

Making progress!

2. Some of us sing. How has your singing gone?

I listen to "good" singers (from Tom Waits to Ry Cooder to Etta James to Mo above) and despair.
But like working on harp...I'm working on it.

I'n starting to sing now rather than shout...it works sooooooooooo much better. Like playing harp with low volume air, you can sing so much better letting the mic do the heavy lifting.

3. Some of us write lyrics. How as that gone?

Loads of notes scribbled, some going decades back.
I turned a couple into songs, but they take some playing before they bed in.

I really like Dylan and Tom Waits (and others) use of metaphor as a songwriting strategy.
Poetry to music.

4. Developed melodies?

Starting to hear more on harp as my technique gets better.
I bought http://www.hooktheory.com/ and it's got some good tips, and is a useful tool to get some more insight in melodic/harmony rules...and where/why you can break them.

5. Learned elusive theory or gained insights into how you play or insights into how you can teach and share about this instrument.

http://www.hooktheory.com/ gave me some ideas, and I have a load more on the todo list for HarpNinja.
Let me know if you have some!

6. Stage presence. I've seen people go up and play mediocre, but they work the crowd well and they get liked. I've seen technically great bands annoy everyone (they show up with an entourage at an open mic and talk loudly through everyone else's set and then they leave as soon as they are done.

Only did a couple of real life gigs the last year, but I did some work on this area. More work needed!

7. What are you getting out of the blues?

I'm not so concerned about making "modern blues", but more focused on genre mashing styles with a blues feel and tone to create new hybrids that have groove and tone. And working to understand some old blues styles better.


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Paul Cohen aka Komuso Tokugawa
HarpNinja - Learn Harmonica Faster
Bringing the Boogie to the Bitstream

Last Edited by Komuso on Aug 21, 2015 6:34 AM


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