A while back I mentioned that a couple of friends and I was going to record Peter Green´s instrumental ""The Supernatural" with harmonica. Somenone -- but I don´t remember who and can´t find my post -- expressed an interest in hearing the results and here it is. (I had to change title for Soundcloud, ´cause they´ve probably made a fuss if I used the original title. "Den övernaturlige" means "The Supernatural" in Swedish, which of course is ... enormously good to know for you psychedelia fiends out there.)
This has no commercial purpose whatever, just for fun. My friend H makes CD´s (if you remember those) of various blues/rock/souls standards and then gives them away. It has some promotional value (for gigs), but that´s it.
Please give me all the criticism that you can! The backing track was laid when I wasn´t present so that one is settled -- otherwise I would have urged for a slower tempo -- but the rest is open. It´s a lot of reverb here, but I could live with even more: the Green/Mayall version is rather drenched in it as well.
Unfortunately I overplay a bit, which is annoying; also the second to last note (a 2-5 octave bend) is a bit iffy, but I can live with that. Might be an occasional glitch here and there, but, for those of you who like Green´s version, just tell me if you think this is a complete sacrilege, and if so why! I´m a big boy now and I can handle it.
Played on G and C harmonicas, right OOTB. For the long notes I had to use a chromatic.
Thanks guys. Yeah I know, Soundcloud´s been on the skids for quite a while now. I don´t keep anything important there but will check out new places for music storing.
Why not try an unwavering and unvibrato long tone on those 2 hole inhales? Most are afraid of letting the note tell the story without dressing it up with effects. ---------- The Iceman
Playing with no vibrato takes FEARLESSNESS. Not for everyone.
Nothing wrong with the confident sound of a vibrating reed unadorned.
Old School Larry would have to find his mic, hook it into his ancient windows xp dell, go to soundcloud and record and then post link. ow, my brain hurts just thinking about it.
As you know, I am a total Miles Davis man...he was one of the first to play unadorned and with no vibrato that made huge impact on jazz. His HS teacher, Elwood Buchanan, taught him to not "shake" his notes. He would say, "when you get older, you'll shake because of age. No need to do it now".
Actually, no vibrato on diatonic long notes makes a huge impact on the listening audience, but ya gotta be fearless. ---------- The Iceman
When it comes to vibrato I must sometimes reign myself in a bit. Otherwise I´d probably vibrate the whole time -- and that can be too much. But frankly, I like vibrato. And playing live, my impression is that it works miracles. Therefore the need for some restriction: you don´t want to spill all the beans all the time. (For some people vibrato is ingratiating, "false" and so on. Has never bothered me.)
One problem with that vibrato is that, while it is prevalent on the inhale notes, it is either absent on the exhale notes or is not an equal sounding vibrato to the inhale ones. Very few players even consider this and even fewer have worked to equalize it across the board.
In the Peter Green tune, there is a sustained 4 hole exhale w/out vibrato. sounds just fine. ---------- The Iceman
