"I do not agree though that it is as simple as adding vibrato and dragging the beat."
I don't, either. There's also timbre, variation of volume, and a host of other things. The instrument creates sounds, not emotions. It is up to the listener, as you pointed out, to experience in his own way the emotions that those sounds produce in HIM. Emotions defy definition. Sound's don't, once you've heard them.
I don't think we can go any further with this. We're starting to talk in circles. :)
MrVLUN, the question is, if you can't see the performer, when you can't tell if it's a computer or a person, sort of a musical version of the Turing Test. I don't have the link handy, but a while back Wired ran an article that featured some piano pieces performed, and composed by computers. They were hauntingly good.
It was kind of a depressing John Henry-ish moment. We'll all die with our harmonicas in our hand!
@Cristal - now that's an interesting technique - it sounds a lot like the 'method' school of acting. I do sometimes think of my dad ( who passed on in 89) . I remember playing a gig shortly after he died, doing Knocking on Heaven's Door and nearly crying. - There are times when I want to 'feel more emotion' during that song especially that I conjure that cirmcustance up.
@SonnyD You come from a long lineage of generations upon generations.. what did they bestow you with? What song ? what prayer? They lived and died passing thier sufferings, longings, fears and love on down a long chain of lives to YOU!
You where born of an act of passion and rythm! The ocean rocks in rythm, the seasons too.
Everything you love or hold dear, you will all too soon loose. You've got the ache of desire in your sex, anger you haven't expressed, joy you haven't shared.
This is your time to dance on this planet.
As Cristal put it 'be free of contraints on your instrument...' meaning , get good enough that you don't have to think about it all the time your are playing. Then . . .
-Shake your shit motherfucker!
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Last Edited by on Sep 12, 2011 11:38 PM
I also think that you can't TRY to play with soul as if was just another technique like wahs or warbles-it's emotional. Now, you could think of something in your life(or fantasize!)that puts you in a 'zone' where you're consumed by the thought and the emotions it brings upon you, and then the music coming from you will be colored by this. It could be subtle in some, and very obvious from others.
Sing the 'Star Spangled Banner(or National Anthem of your choice)by just mimicking the melody line and mouthing the words, like you would have at a school funtion. Probably no soul in that rendition.
Now, think of those who have died to give you freedom, and put their lives on the line every single day to protect it, and that the life you enjoy wouldn't be possible in some other countries, etc...Anything that suddenly adds depth and meaning to those lyrics. Close your eyes, and sing it again. You'll feel it this time.
That's soul, baby.
(now I sound like Telly Savalas) ---------- Todd L. Greene
i was singing the other day and i got to a part in the song where i reached down in my stomach and felt something like a cramp but it felt hard to bring up to get a feeling out of it was soul i think? mabey thats the feel.
No, that could very well be the soul coming out. Your stomach can knot up with emotion. Some people cry, or sweat, or just smile ear to ear with their eyes closed like they are in church and a sermon just hit home. I'm a guy who admittedly doesn't dance willingly, but when I get into a song and play from my soul, I sway at the hips. A singer I was in a band with pointed it out to me-I wasn't even aware that I was doing it. ---------- Todd L. Greene
1. Old, cracked and shrunken wood combs. 2. Lots of dried spit filling in the gaps and cracks. 3. Nickel plated steel covers with the plating worn off where your lips have spent many an hour. 4. Blooms of rust on the insides of the covers. 5. A few bends in the covers from the times you gripped it too tight in the heat of the moment. 6. Various scuff marks because it never leaves your side. 7. Pocket lint. ---------- Ozark Rich __________ ##########
@Todd: Unfortunately, most of my harps are composed of brass, aluminum and stainless steel; cold and sterile, to match my heart/soul (so says my wife :) ---------- Ozark Rich __________ ##########
@Iceman love your definition of soul-best description I have ever seen-when dick clarke asked otis redding to define it he could not but you know when you hear it expressed thru music
In order to put 'soul' into anything, you have to have it yourself.
You 'get' soul from life experiences, good or bad, like falling in love, falling out of love, taking a chance, working really hard to achieve something, believing in something or trying to change your world.
I don't think you'll get it from Xbox or surfing the net.
Blues is the music of suffering, and you don't have to be black or poor or oppressed to suffer; its universal, even for a lucky man like myself. I think if you haven't suffered you haven't lived. To get soul in what you play, dig deep within and touch that suffering then give it voice in your music. It helps if you play stuff either that you have written or that you can relate to. Its a bit like method acting, look at BB the King in this clip, he's not just a great musician, he's a great actor. Make sure you see the finale of this song where he nearly faints from emotion!
There is of course another thing you need to express this in any medium, and that is technical proficiency. Its all very well being able to feel the 'soul' but if you can't play the instrument, you can't express it.
To sum it up; suffer baby (cause you're gonna anyway), and practice, practice, practice! ---------- Lucky Lester
I probably missed some of the posts, this is a long thread. Someone may have said this already; I know I've read a few posts with the same idea, but here is my thought.
You can't learn soul. Either you have it or you don't.
Also, it isn't something for you to even know you have or say that you have, or even try to have. It is something that other people say about you or your playing. Not what you say about yourself. And even with that, some will agree and some will disagree about how much soul one has.
I've come late to this topic, but just read through everything said above. I'd have to agree with Walter Tore, Wolf Kristiansen, Todd Greene, HarpNinja, Cristal and a few others on this one. You can't fake it. Either you are expressing your soul or you are not.
Having some mastery of your harmonica will certainly help you express your soul when you're able, but there has to be soul behind the music or it won't be felt. And Walter is right that some people won't be open to receiving your soulful expressions when they do come. If a computer can produce soulful music, then that is reflection of the programmer, not the computer.
Nobody has taken up Tookatooka's question: "How can you play sad blues with soul, when you're feeling happy?". Well, yes you can. Making soulful music, or any other type of art that is an expression of your soul involves temporarily stepping out of your work-a-day state of consciousness into another state, where you are open to your imagination and the images that reside there. If you were happy-go-lucky before you started your blues song, while you are playing that blues you can be in another place, expressing the soul wounds we all accumulate over a lifetime. When you're finished your song, you can come back from that altered state consciousness.
This is also the link between art-making and healing and, perhaps, also where madness and art-making overlap too. Someone who is described as "crazy" may always be living in that altered state where the imagination constantly influences their consciousness.
As a student of Expressive Arts Therapy for the last year, I've learned a different way of looking at the process of art-making. Walter Tore knows all about this too, having discovered it for himself.
Here is the secret: soulful art-making is about waiting for the "images" to come to you (and they will) and engaging them, co-creating with them. Soulful art-making is about letting go of the notion that you control the process. You need to be open to what is emerging in the moment and working with that. The "images" that come will arise from "soul" (which may mean different things to different people: psyche, spirit, cosmos, or parts unknown). I'm not the one to explain what "soul" is, but I have experienced the process I describe, and so can you. Others here have mentioned being "in the groove" or "going with the flow"; that is another way of describing it.
Edited for a few typos. ----------
Last Edited by on Sep 14, 2011 7:41 AM
How do you play sad soulful blues when you are feeling happy? Have your friend call you just before the show and say he ran over your puppy. (It's not evil, he doesn't have to actually run over your puppy.)
I've heard stories that they used to tell the Little Rascals the dog died every time they needed the kids to cry.
I actually do better at playing soulfully when I am happy. When I am depressed or devastated by something, I am consumed with it, and I really don't even feel like playing music. But, when my mind is clear, I can more easily channel those feelings to draw from. I've had plenty of tragedies in my lifetime to draw from. ---------- Todd L. Greene
"As a student of Expressive Arts Therapy for the last year, I've learned a different way of looking at the process of art-making. Walter Tore knows all about this too, having discovered it for himself.
Here is the secret: soulful art-making is about waiting for the "images" to come to you (and they will) and engaging them, co-creating with them. Soulful art-making is about letting go of the notion that you control the process. You need to be open to what is emerging in the moment and working with that. The "images" that come will arise from "soul" (which may mean different things to different people: psyche, spirit, cosmos, or parts unknown). I'm not the one to explain what "soul" is, but I have experienced the process I describe, and so can you. Others here have mentioned being "in the groove" or "going with the flow"; that is another way of describing it."
mr so&so: I had no idea such a thing was out there. I can add, at least the way I do my music, that I become the song. I see, smell, taste it. I am not a co creator, only a vehicle for the spirits to use my voice and instruments. I am a spectator to the process that is also a part of it- hard to explain it is because it is a feeling of being one with myself and with the spirit of the song. I feel the heat if it is taking place in a hot climate. I feel the worry if it is a guy on death row. I feel the shame if it is a junkie that just stole from his mother. I feel the rage if it is a young kid with no hope. I feel the death if it is a suicide. I feel the love, and anything that is in the song. I feel the rain, the smells, the vibes of the place it is taking place in- ex- the cold streets of NYC or the peacefulness of a rural setting. Some songs are current and some take me back hundreds of years. It is fascinating to be a time traveler and never leave my studio. This makes doing gigs not very interesting anymore unless they are really good ones where the audience will join me and the sound system a real good one.
I walk into that song, like Gumby use to walk into books. That always fascinated me as kid. I have done rehearsed music and it never has taken me to such places. That is why I am hooked on Spontobeat and have no interest in thinking out my music in advance. Maybe I should start having Spontobeat clinics. People would have to be willing to go wherever the song takes them. It could be pure joy to pure hell, all in one song. When I play with a band they often say the watch me as a spectator much like I do with the spirit of the song, only they are once removed. Walter
This excited me. I am going out to my studio to make some music!
---------- walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year. " life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
Hey guys, I stumbled on this video from Jason Ricci. Very interesting points made about "how to play melodically" by not limiting oneself to just the blues scale. I thought of this thread when I watched it.
By the way, hello to all. I'm quite new to the forum but check it almost religiously. Such great content and contributors...and community.
