I discovered Skip James a couple months ago and I must say this guy is one of the greatest (to me anyway). My english is far from being good enough to try and convey how his music makes me feel... Let's just say I'm in rough patch of my adult life currently (wife leaving, young children, etc.)
I'm listening to his 60's recordings, I'm not sure but I think there some space for a harmonica on some of them, but I can't find out what key to use (I'm pretty sure Devil got my woman wants a G harp).
Anyone here could help me and tell me what keys these songs are, I figure someone here might know all this by heart...
*My Gal *Washington DC Hospital blues *Crow Jane - any other really -
I'd like to add that despite these lyrics, I'm not planning the murder of my wife with either a smoking 44, a 22-20, a two by four or any other way depicted in these songs, I still love her and I'll be attached to her in some way until one of us leaves this earth, in what I hope to be a peaceful and natural manner.
I think playing music helps me through this and it's not something I had planned when I picked up this instrument only 2 years ago.
thanks for helping me with my inability to key a song or trust me enough to believe what I hear.
@praefect if you get a chance to see martin scorsee movie on blues there is a good part on skip james and how he went to wisconsin to record in 1931 and the only money he ever got was expense money and train tickets the company he recorded for went belly up and skip got hoodood by the hoodo man
Skip James was from my part of Mississippi. Around Yazoo County in Bentonia. His blues marker is displayed their as well as the juke joint /cafe that he played at. The Skip James style or school has always been my favorite but then again im very bias. His influence on music has traveled far.
If you're relating to murder ballads, check out some of Charlie Parr's (he's a slide player). www.charlieparr.com
Last Edited by on Mar 28, 2011 2:00 PM
So no one can help me out with keying these songs, too bad, I thought some of you would be playing these songs as standards... The fact that his guitar is setup differently (open D or something), could that be of any help to figure out which harmonica to use...
This is truly the worst thing for me, not being able to figure out which harp to use.. it just sucks, I guess I have to try 'em all and trust me more.
thanks anyway, you're still the best people to ask
never heard any of skips music played with harp robert johnsons music is played with harp frequently I have a book which transcribes all his 29 songs and the key they were played in
Check out some "Cephas and Wiggins" CD's or maybe try and find some videos on YouTube. They are an acoustic duo (guitar & harmonica) mostly in the Piedmont style, but do a bunch of Skip Jame's tunes. I think that you might be able to pick up some of what Phil Wiggins is playing on harp by ear (might point you in the right direction)?
I know that "Crow Jane" is on thier album "Richmond Blues".
I guess the harp is a little hard to hear on this. Maybe you could check out their discography and then buy single tracks of Skip James tunes they did? Just an idea? ----------
Praefect, it's a pain in the butt because it's not supported in the newer versions of Windows Media Player, but there is a little plug-in called 'Muse-On'.
http://dbhovel.com/Extras/MuseOn.aspx
To use it now you have to install an older version of WMA on you computer (you can keep the newer installation too) and add the plug in. It runs as a visualization and is a little buggy, but it is really good at finding the keys for songs. There is software that DJ's use that will do the same thing but they are harder to use. Just remember, it will tell you the key, not the crossharp, so you have to know which harp to use for the key. Even if it can't figure out for sure what key the song is in it will give you a good starting point (something close on the circle of fifths).
Of course, you need a digital copy of the song to play. If the only copy you can find is on YouTube you can find downloaders that work with YouTube with a quick Google search and then convert the FLV file into something Media Player will play, but if you can buy it on Amazon or iTunes it's a lot simpler and guilt free.
I used Muse-On to find the key for a bunch of songs in my collection. A neat trick, once you have it, is to edit the metadata (all the stuff like artist, songwriter, album, etc.) It's hidden by default and I haven't found any albums that actually list the info, but there is a 'key' column. You can add the key to the info and even sort songs by key so you can play along with a bunch of songs all with the same harp.
Of course, if you aren't playing along with a recording you can play them in any key you want. :)
PS, when you want people to key songs for you, try to find the songs on YouTube and include a link. A lot of people will take a second to listen and try to figure out a problem if it's harp related but as a whole we're too lazy to go find the stuff ourselves.
Last Edited by on Mar 29, 2011 9:46 PM