So I decided to take a few steps back so that I might re-access what's ahead. I may have rushed in my previous harp adventures and screwed things up. I'm kind of/ sort of starting over. I'm going to start by choosing a song to work on in hopes of getting some licks down and making them second nature. My harp playing has been so on and off that I figure I have about 2 or 3 years total of on and off actual playing that stretches 27 years since buying my first harmonica and book. I need to learn over again.
The other day I decided, to mess around with Help Me. ( this isn't my new practice song choice though) just for the hell of it and see if I could change it up a little from the original. I still tried to keep some of the original, kind of sort of touched on, within the playing but desperately tried to add my own thing. I wasn't really happy with the result. Oh well...I did get a lot of practice as I may have repeated the whole song around 60 times. Hearing it played back helps hear what needs work and where I might go, or try, once I choose my song to learn.
I decided to do it without backing music because all the backing tracks were in G and I wanted to use my Bb harp. Playing and singing is a bitch. My mouth was dry and I couldn't breath! It sucks when you have to swallow while singing!
Putting this out there is scary but hey....maybe it'll help. I'll accept whatever criticism is dished out. It's for schoolin' !!
So the point is. This is my new starting over point. I'll see how this improves over time. Next year I'll play this back and compare it to the me of next year.
Singing and playing the harp on the same song is my weakness. I don't get dry mouth but something about trying to remember the vocal melody, the harp riff and the lyrics all at the same time breaks my brain! (Usually it's the lyrics that pop out... particularly getting from one verse to another. Once I remember which verse I'm on I'm usually okay.)
I like your voice. It sounded like you may have wandered a bit finding the groove. That can be tough without a backing track. Bb is my favorite singing key. If you want to use backing tracks in another key there is software for that. I use Audacity, which is free, to pitch shift songs. It's got sort of a clunky interface, but it works. I think the Amazing Slow Downer would do the trick too, and probably more intuitively.
I like the idea of recording something with the idea of coming back to it in a year and seeing how much you've come along. I may try that too.
I don't know if you've heard it, but Joan Osborne does a great version of Help Me.
Not a bad starting point! I'm actually quite envious of your singing. I don't have the balls to even try unless I'm in the car alone. I hear a lot of good stuff in there but also hear all of the same "misses" that you probably hear. As much as it sucks, I would suggest pulling back from songs and licks to single notes and scales for a while. If you practiced the blues scale for 3 weeks (and nothing else) you'd have a stronger foundation for licks and songs. Spend some time watching old Howlin Wolf vids on YouTube. He was able to say much with so little. You don't need to expand at this point. You need to focus more narrowly. Human nature will tell you otherwise. One of my old associates used to say "Turn the telescope and now it's a microscope." Don't look for your mistakes. Look at what you've got right and build from there. Your chord/vamps sound pretty good. Your vocals are nice also. Get those single notes by practicing long tones in each hole (draw & blow) and scales and be careful with the bent notes. They're off a bit which gives it a sour tone. If you have a smartphone or tablet, the Bend-o-meter app can be really helpful for hitting the sweet spot on bends. It also gives you a visual reference you just can't get otherwise.
There's my 4 cents. Can't wait to see your progress!
Thanks guys. I've seen a few really good live versions or Help me but, for me, that's a bit different because there's a band. That means it was rehearsed to a degree and the whole structure of the song was kind of adjusted a bit allowing a bit more freedom than a backing track. With BT I feel stuck in the original SBW groove. But those live versions are what I had in mind.
As far as my singing, I was kind of hoping no one payed attention to it and focused more on the harp. . I wasn't focused on the vocals and only added them so I didn't have to play continuously for the whole song! I didn't want this to be about singing. I was sort of a backing track lol. I wasn't trying to sing good nor was I wanting to sound bad. Just kind of filling the space of the harp rather than the harp filling the space of singing. So I just kind of threw the words out there. I wasn't going to sing the last verse and pretty much ended the song after the second verse but as soon as I hit that resolution note I decided to keep going. I have no clue why.
Overall I was also trying to sound a little better than my last sample in my post/thread from last week. That was what pretty much got me started on this new track....my frustration there; as the title of that thread alluded to.
@kingoBad...yes, there are quite a few things I'm working on at the moment. This was kind of a part two to my previous post and samples last week explaining my frustrations.
You may be right about singing throwing my timing off. It think it had to do with playing and singing together causing me to loose breath and in turn trying to catch up and so on. I was having trouble there.
It's funny though. I had a rhythm playing in my head that I was sort of timing myself too and even now, when I play the video and hum the tune to myself I'm in time with whatever is going on in my head. lol. Weird (interesting) but something I'll have to investigate a bit more.
@kingoBad...yes, there are quite a few things I'm working on at the moment. This was kind of a part two to my previous post and samples last week explaining my frustrations.
You may be right about singing throwing my timing off. It think it had to do with playing and singing together causing me to loose breath and in turn trying to catch up and so on. I was having trouble there.
It's funny though. I had a rhythm playing in my head that I was sort of timing myself too and even now, when I play the video and hum the tune to myself I'm in time with whatever is going on in my head. lol. Weird (interesting) but something I'll have to investigate a bit more.
