CarlA
817 posts
Nov 20, 2015
11:59 AM
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Funny how your musical journey takes you through numerous changes. These are some of mine.
1. Lip pursers, become tongue blockers
Tongue blockers, become lip pursers
2. Bullet mic fanatics, become as fanatical about stick mics.
Stick mic fanatics, become as fanatical about bullet mics.
3. Take 6 months to a year, and pretend that amplifiers don't exist. Don't even think about amps, let alone use them ever during this time.
Acoustic tone and technique are KING!!!
4. Hand techniques, shaping notes with the hand, and discovering different cupping techniques are paramount. Master them all, and use these in your playing arsenal.
5. Greatest tongue blocking technique (IMO) is the octave split. Master these with good acoustic tone and you will turn heads and make people listen.
6. Master playing holes 7-10. It's incredible how many players, even many notable professional harp players, think that mastery of the upper octave of the harmonica involves throwing in a 9 blow bend every so often.
7. Got a broken or blown out reed, don't fix it. Play as if that note is no longer there. You will be fascinated by how many more musical opportunities and variations in your playing will occur the LESS notes you have, not the more.
8. Stop listening to post-war blues players. I know this is blasphemy, but it's necessary.
9. Listen to players you hate! Believe it or not, they in fact may be the ones that will influence your playing the most.
10. Always maintain a teachable spirit when playing. It will never let you down.
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SuperBee
2973 posts
Nov 20, 2015
3:22 PM
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Interesting post, CarlA. I relate to some of these.
Players you hate; i could never understand what was great about jimmy reed. Getting over that led to my greatest leap forward on thd harp since learning to draw bend. Thetop endof the harp ismy favourite thing now. Jimmy reed wasmy gateway...and a thread here about some guy playing boogie on regga woman 'incorrectly' led me to discover the joy of that tune...played 'correctly' using the blow bends in 8 and 9 to sub for the draw notes.
Octave splits...i really started to work on these wheni needed to tune harps. Id been messing with near enough/goodenough for a long time but playing clean became super important when i was tuning harps for other people. Now i u derstand that it wasnt good enough before.
Thers more...i was a lp who became tb..i dont want to be lp again but ive had to relearn it and now learning transition
Im just over mics and i rarely use anamp...but i know what i want from both
Hand techniques...ive ignored for years. I believe its legit, im just not interested right now
I understand thd idea of playing around dead reeds, but im unlikely to do it for more than a song at a time. But its similiaridea to using an alt tuning for a while. I usec ct for months and learned a lot with just that 1 different note
But i am not sure i understand exactly what you mean by 'post war blues players' and why you thought yoo needed to not listen to them
Last Edited by SuperBee on Nov 20, 2015 3:24 PM
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CarlA
818 posts
Nov 21, 2015
7:45 AM
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@superbee
"But i am not sure i understand exactly what you mean by 'post war blues players' and why you thought yoo needed to not listen to them"
I should have been more specific in the OP about this point. Not that you should never listen to them, because they are the "foundation" and the "vocabulary" of our instrument. Rather, place their recordings on the shelf for a period of time and focus on the more "modern" players instead.
WAY too many harp players sound the same, and their playing extremely predictable, because the extension of their vocabulary is limited to post-war blues players only.
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Thievin' Heathen
628 posts
Nov 21, 2015
8:11 AM
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"Rather, place their recordings on the shelf for a period of time and focus on the more "modern" players instead."
Funny, I thought you were suggesting focusing on the pre-way guys. I'm all about that.
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Bilzharp
110 posts
Nov 21, 2015
8:19 AM
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"8. Stop listening to post-war blues players. I know this is blasphemy, but it's necessary."
Ha! I misinterpreted that one to mean: Start listening to PRE-war blues players for a while. I like that idea too.
Interesting post. A number of times I've told myself "I'm not that style of player" just to avoid having to woodshed. I'll still tell myself that sometimes just for sanity's sake but too often I've cut myself off from learning something worthwhile.
Edit: Double Ha! I see Thievin' beat me to it. Great minds, ya know.
Last Edited by Bilzharp on Nov 21, 2015 8:22 AM
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CarlA
819 posts
Nov 21, 2015
11:22 AM
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Lol.
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CarlA
820 posts
Nov 24, 2015
5:17 PM
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Good shit:)
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2chops
442 posts
Nov 25, 2015
6:20 AM
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Good topic. I've always been taught to "Esteem others as better than yourself." With that in mind, I've always had the mind set of a perpetual student. Even when I'm with someone who has less experience than me in a particular area, they have a different background and mindset and set of experiences of their own that adds to what they do. I glean from them as much as I can.
A good friend of mine has always said that "You've got to remain teachable, or it just won't work."
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I'm workin on it. I'm workin on it.
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Goldbrick
1193 posts
Nov 25, 2015
9:51 AM
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My kids and pets have taught me substantially more than my 6 years in University
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CarlA
821 posts
Nov 27, 2015
6:08 PM
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"
Nov 25, 2015
9:51 AM
My kids and pets have taught me substantially more than my 6 years in University"
LMAO! I would have to agree as well:)
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