Playing the harmonica? Why? Well, for me it's more of a question why I don't stop playing ... because I can't stop. It's always there, where ever I go, in the car, at work, when I go jogging in the mountains or along the woods trails. Excellent training for the lungcapacity to play while running. Maybe that's why my lungvolume is 7 liters! (1.85 gallons). Been playing for 25 years, acoustic and amplified, and it is now it's getting really interresting. Maybe it's like they say ... you have to do your 10,000 hours to get some hang of it.
I always come back to the blues, but like taking detours ... jazz, folk, country, ethnic ... My latest challange is the bass harp. What a monster instrument.
I believe in the tone, the acoustic tone. With out that it doesn't matter what gear you have, and if you've found your tone it still doesn't matter much what gear you have, you'll always sound good!
welcome S-harp. i think you will fit in well around here. this being a huge forum there are a lot of differing points of view. i happen to agree with what you have to say as i think most here will. i am about to enter my 40th year messing with these dang things. some years ago i was struggling over what amp to buy to improve my sound, when a guy i'd never seen before took the stage at a jam and knocked me out of my chair with his tone, and precision, and different position playing. it was a night that put my life as a harp player into a new groove. the guy was Randy Macallister, who was Hohner's darling in the mid or late 90's. to that point i had merely limped along with mostly 2nd position playing and had not taken too many risks with it, so there was a lot missing from my bag of tricks. along came a couple of other harp player peers, who taught me what i was so loath to learn before that. but even with great friends and teachers the spirit must be willing and the hours must be spent. by 2000 i had begun to reach that critical mass where the a-HA moment was not a once- a year thing, more like a once-a-month or even once-a-week occurrence. "discovering" 3rd position revolutionized my outlook on what a harp could do, as did "rediscovering" 1st position. my taste broadened as well, into jazz, folk, country, funk, etc etc. i still depend almost entirely on the first 3 positions but have done a bit of exploring into 5th and 12th. at this stage of the game i have a duo partner and we released a cd 6 months ago, and are already beginning to get the next cd together. i estimate it will be most of a year to get this one ready since it's planned to be a full blown (pun intended) full band production and not just the two of us. but the preparation involved has left little time for real experimentation into other positions. i am actually going a bit backward, deeper into 1st and 2nd position on some things for this next project, but it sounds so good! hope to see you posting here S-harp! glad to see a new face. ---------- http://www.reverbnation.com/jawboneandjolene
@jbone Thank You, and yes ... positions! Exploring different positions really develops ones playing, doesn't it. I'm back right now to the 1st pos (again) and finding new stuff, and it is like that, in't it? ... developing in circles. Stuff/gear for example, now I'm back (again) with my Amerikan Shure545-pistol shooting straight through the PA. You have all probably seen the clip where Howard Levy goes through the positions on one harp and how he changes styles depending on position, which is significant I think. One position doesn't resonate well with all styles and all styles doesn't work well with one position. ---------- The tone, the tone ... and the tone.
I've played other instruments for years and have come to the conclusion that an instrument can only slightly hinder a good musician. A great harp player on a crappy harp will still sound better than me ony harp... Beginners always look for the easy solution. The only easy solution is to play, a lot.
Welcome! I have been playing bass harp for around 5 years and this year joined a non harp band as the bass instrument. I also had a practice harp band but we only performed once. It taught me a lot!
@Waldo ... Thank You! I agree, a crappy instrument only slightly hinders a good musician, at least in the ears of the listeners/audience. Personally, the musician on the other hand most certainly gets more than slightly hindered in his playing-experiance. I think we all are beginners in some extent, aren't we? The more we learn, the more we realize how little we know. I think the level of the players skill is not as interresting as if the player has IT or not.
@MJ ... Thank You!
@Michael Rubin ... Thank You! ... and finally, a fellow double-bass-harmonica player! You're probably lucky enough to have a bassharp-mic? I play through an ordinary dynamic, hand held with cupping, through my Harp Commander (and then the bass-amp) and it takes some microphone technique to be on target to get an even volume moving up and down that monster instrument. ---------- The tone, the tone ... and the tone.
