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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! > George Benson - Affirmation (harmonica cover)
George Benson - Affirmation (harmonica cover)
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kormin
1 post
Oct 22, 2016
11:32 AM
Hi! My name is Alexey. Hope you enjoy it.


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JustFuya
990 posts
Oct 22, 2016
12:22 PM
Exceptional!
nacoran
9264 posts
Oct 22, 2016
1:00 PM
Very nice!

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Nate
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First Post- May 8, 2009
kudzurunner
6065 posts
Oct 22, 2016
5:07 PM
Hi Alexey. Welcome to the forum! It's unusual when somebody's first post is a video of playing at that high level. So I'll welcome you to the forum. But I'll also tell you a story and offer you some constructive criticism.

When Breezin', George Benson's breakout album, first came out, I was a summer camp counselor at Candy Mountain Day Camp in Rockland County, New York, about 7 miles from where I lived. I remember the album, and that summer, well. One of my co-counselors that summer was a beautiful, tan goddess of a woman. I was not much of a ladies' man, but I asked her on a date. She accepted. I took her to Rockland Lake, about a mile from my boyhood home. She had on a one-piece maillot (a body-hugging bathing suit) and she stretched herself out across the bow of my Sunfish. I did not come from a rich family, but my parents had bought my brother and me a used Sunfish--a very small sailing boat--and my father was nice enough to stick that Sunfish in the back of our 1965 Dodge Polara station wagon and drive my date and I down to the lake.

In any case, for the first and only time in my 19-year-old life, I had a pretty girl, a beautiful sunny day, a lake, and a f--king sailboat at my disposal.

I was also a wannabe jazz guitarist, and that summer (the summer of 1977), George Benson's "Breezin" was on Top 40 radio. The go-to hit was "This Masquerade," but I'd bought the album, and so I was listening to all of it, and playing along with it as best I could.

I never got the girl. We had a few kisses and I don't believe we ever had a second date. But she had an incredible body, gorgeous tan legs, and when I hear music from that album, that's what I think about.

Now: about your cover of "Affirmation." Hmmm. You've got all the notes in all the right places. So you're working at a very high TECHNICAL level. But the poetry is missing.

So if I were in your place, I would have a couple of drinks and spend some time getting to know that song, and my instrument, in a different way. You might start by listening to the first 30 seconds of Benson playing the song. You'll notice that he is playing free, without reference to any exact time signature.

Or, alternately, you might listen to a lot of Christelle Berthon and ask yourself: what would SHE do with this song?

You've got almost all the technique you need to play this song brilliantly. But there's a world of other stuff behind what you're doing--and you're not quite doing it.

You need to find a way to get the pretty girl sprawled across the front of the sailboat into what you're doing. When you can get that--and when you can communicate the effect she has on your love-and-lust-struck heart--then you'll have a hit.

Here's the original: Benson's cover of Jose Feliciano's song:

Last Edited by kudzurunner on Oct 22, 2016 5:12 PM
kormin
2 posts
Oct 23, 2016
2:34 AM
Hi Adam! Thank you for the story of your life and I am very grateful for your criticism. You are absolutely right. Maybe it's from what I played it on the verge of my technical capabilities and I did not have enough freedom for the poetry of which you speak. Or from the fact that I do not drink alcohol :)
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