This was seriously FUN to play...This is an "attempt" to play one of the GREAT Little Walters Masterpieces! I learned a lot messin with this song this afternoon, but mainly learned what a Master Musician Little Walter is. Though my attempt doesn't come close to givin his tune justice - it was a BLAST to try and play it!
Your an easy audience tooka, thank you! The 5 hole is used some and the 6th is used once towards the end of the song. But yes, those first 4 holes are world unto there own when Walter gets a hold of em. It's mind boggling he did that awesome song on mostly 4 holes, simply amazing...
@JC Thank you Sir...Your absolutely right when you say cool stuff. Whenever you try to play his music - you realize just how COOL he his, his playing ooozes coolness and that is SO HARD to emulate, regardless- I just keep lovin him...Have you put your winning Shuffle King entry on this site yet? I'd love to hear it again - if you can pull it outta the archives...
Thank you gentlemen very much...I used a Holland 4/10 amp, it has built in reverb and a kind of hot green bullet. The harmonica was a crossover and the BT was from Shoji's MP3 store.
Fer chrissake Frank! You should be out fronting a band! And no more talk about how you like your sleep; You owe it to blues/harp lovers everywhere. :) ---------- Pistolkatt - Pistolkatts youtube
I think Frank would rather be tending his garden. It looked great in his video. I love home grown produce. I'm a string beans, tomatoes, carrots, and salad grower myself in a very small way.
Nice stuff, Frank. The next challenge, as you know, is to get all the notes AND swing hard in a way that lets the song breathe. LW was a master because he had an amazing melodic imagination AND he swung like a mofo. It's hard as heck to track all his notes, but it's even harder to replicate his swing.
My favorite LW instrumental sounds a bit like "Rocker." It's the version of "Fast Boogie" that shows up #2 (at least for me) on this Amazon mp3 list; time duration is 2:52:
Nice work Frank-you've got chops, my man. Tooka mentioned gardening, so I had to see what video he was referring to(your 'In the Mood' rendition-another good job of playing, too!). I also very much enjoy gardening, and that video got me fired up, as I'm planning my spring gardens now. ---------- Todd L. Greene
Thanks Frank. Sounded great. you can really play. What a great way to get my day started, I'll be playing that in my head the rest of the day. ---------- http://www.reverbnation.com/#!/mudflapnicholsandthetwistedspokes
hvyj- your kudos are a blessing, thanks for checkin out the video.
Pcat, I love that handle btw...Trust me,at this time in my life- Sleep is "sacred" to me and I absolutely love being awake early in the morning! And as you know playin the blues out and about is for "NIGHT CATS"
Tooka - You nailed it...Gardening has priority over Music, but they both are relaxing therapy for me and any stress I may be under takes a back seat when I'm ingaged in those activities. I work in the MH/MR field and these hobbies help me chill out...
Kudzu...I'm honored that you took the time to watch that vid, I sincerely mean that! That challenge is what I want to experience, and keeps me a dedicated student of his...To be able to feel the freedom of moving effortlessly through a song as Little Walter does is an addictive goal for me and when I practice improvising and I let go of control I always obtain a natural high that leaves me feeling refreshed.
So, For anyone who passes by Little Walters treasure chest of musical riches for what ever reason. Know that when you learn JUKE - he is teaching you much more then a riff...Walters notes simply scratch the surface of the genius he has to offer to any style harmonica player!
And this is not about hero worship - it is about humbling yourself in the presence of a MASTER whether dead or alive and realizing their musical accomplishments are worthy of respect and sometimes DEEP RESPECT...
Iv'e seen Sugar Blue perform a hand full of times and at one show it was pointed out to him that Robert Junior Lockwood was in the audience...Instantly,Sugar Blue became serious and exhibited a very humble demeanor and acknowledged Mr. Lockwood's presence with such a heartfelt appreciation of his accomplishments and he honored him with DUE respect.
My point, Little Walter may be old news, overplayed, over copied- you know the story....But if studied - His music will PROVE that one can not put a dollar figure on the VALUE it has when it comes to TEACHING a harmonica player some of the most valuable lessons you'll ever learn about what makes this instrument tick and as Adam pointed out - "BREATHE"
Again, I am flattered that you fellow "brothers of the harp" watched and liked the video. Thank you Adam Gussow for this incredibly important learning site and for your Mentorship to harpsters around the world. You, I believe- are one of the golden links in the chain of players and teachers that will be referenced for ages to come.
Todd - Thank you brother, I have a 10ft by 10 ft plot of asparagus that begins rearing it's delicacy in March. I can't wait. If in those photos you see a big patch of ferns, that is the asparagus after you let it go to seed when the harvesting of it ends usually in May. The Big Walter song "In The Mood" that plays during the video is him playing. The recording is bad but a POWERFUL tune just the same.
MR. Rubin, What can I say - Your thumbs up has made my day a happy one indeed!!! You Sir are a bonafide Harmonica Specialist is many ways...
Cken- Good morning and thanks alot, have a great day my friend...
Genius carves its own path. Little Walter was unquestionably a genius, and he carved his own path. So did Beethoven. If he'd sat around wringing his hands and telling himself, "I'll never be Bach," he'd never have gone on to do great things. So while it's important to bow before genius, it's important to learn ALL the lessons that genius has to teach. One lesson is obviously, "Hey, this person created amazing, difficult, inspiring music; I'm going to copy as much as I can." That's an important lesson; a crucial lesson, in fact. But an equally important lesson is, "Hey, now that I've sucked some of the juice out of Little Walter's recordings, I'm going to make my own mark. I'm going to play something so wild that Little Walter, if he were alive today, would come looking for me."
I encourage all students of the harmonica to study Little Walter's recorded output closely, along with the recorded output of another dozen great players, and to copy his licks, his songs, his approach. That's a good form of study. A final exam might be doing exactly what you've done here. You got a 93.5! Great! Joy in that.
Now that you've graduated, what are you going to do with the rest of your life?
Don't tell me, "Hey, I just want to stay in school." Life is an endless learning process, but, as we all know, some people just can't manage to graduate.
Now that Frank has mastered Little Walter, more or less, what is FRANK going to play? What's the Frank Sound? That's a question that we all eventually have to confront--or so I suggest. At least the truly ambitious do. Don't settle for less! Find that one thing that only you can do. Individuate! That's especially important as you begin to define "the tradition" for yourself. Because the moment you do that, you realize that what draws you to Little Walter is the fact that he's NOT Big Walter. And yet Big Walter was great. So is/was James Cotton. They both struggled, in a sense, not to be Little Walter. (When Cotton joined the Muddy Waters band, Muddy tried to insist that he play everything just like Little Walter, because Muddy was sick in love with the LW sound. But Cotton didn't! Talk about a struggle to be yourself!) They were themselves. That's enough.
Last Edited by on Feb 14, 2012 7:11 AM
HOB -So happy you felt a groove, that's cool as hell...
Adam - Yes, you provide some fantastic SOLID advise for sure.I really enjoyed how you worded that, what a great read!
I've just scratched the surface when it comes to the study of The Masters. I play roughly an hour a day and that seems to give me an opportunity to get some of their magic under my skin.
I also am a HUGE advocate of seeking, practicing and achieving ones own "personal style" with the way they approach playing the harmonica.
And my most enjoyable times are when I get into improvisational mode and SPEAK through the instrument with my ideas. So I'm always honing my voice on the harp.
YES-that is the icing on the proverbial cake, being able to express yourself (your feelings and desires) at will through the harp, making your own music.
And I intend in the near future to make a video of playing an improvisational piece, because it is very important to learn to be yourself when sharing the music you make. And I realize that people love it when you play your soul from your heart!
Last Edited by on Feb 14, 2012 8:39 AM
Airmojo...Holy crap, I have a fan, hahahahahahaha. You know it's ironic but I don't have any train or whoopin tunes in my small repitore of songs, probably because it is really hard to do them right- But if I did, I'd jam it for you brother! I did listen to that CD of Doug Jays years ago and remember his music being first rate. Thank you for sayin hi Mr Mojo :)
MP... Your much, much to kind, thank you for checkin it out!
Mr. Wall - Your very welcome, it was my pleasure. Trying to play Little Walters tunes is very enlightening. It forces you to think about the harmonica as a HORN and to attack it in ways that are not in most peoples imaginations. L. Walter SWINGS his phrases in spell binding ways like a only a True Master can - he'll take a hand full of notes or less and sculpt out musical Master pieces that stand the tests of time. Until a player attempts to learn some of his repertoire, it will be difficult to experience the powerhouse of a musician he was, just so much to offer a student who wants to put a breathe of fresh air into the way they view this instrument!
@Frank, is the backing track the one that Shoji calls "Rock Er"? I listened to the preview and it sounded quite tame compared with the one you played with.
I was looking at the "Shoblues Harp Tracks Volume Three" List.
Could you confirm please? Thanks.
I tried to give Reverbnation my money and custom but it seems they want neither at the moment.
B.Wailer - Thanks a lot for watching and the encouragement...Disclaimer- I didn't intend for this thread to hog the forum and am a little embarrassed...My intentions were to play a famous song that didn't access many notes this one in particular ROCKER uses the 1st 4 holes 99% of the time. Yet it processes everything necessary to grab the listener and captivate their curiosity to the very end. Lesson - It is not how many notes played or if you play the totality of your instrument in a song, it is your musicianship that creates memorable, solid, enduring songs!
Tooka, Your correct, some of the Bt's are not perfect... I had to tweek some of them. I used Audacity to speed up some of the BTs...And for Big Walters Boogie I needed to elongate the beginning of it, which I did in audacity to. I used a free down load called "tap tempo" to find out how many beats per minute the original was, then used Audacity to speed up Shoj's Bt - then made an Mp3 of the BT so I could play to it at the proper speed.
Last Edited by on Feb 15, 2012 8:09 AM
"Lesson - It is not how many notes played or if you play the totality of your instrument in a song, it is your musicianship that creates memorable, solid, enduring songs!"
Honkin - Those words rolled out of my mind with ease as I typed them...The HARD part for me to lasso in is the "musicianship" part. In my opinion - The Great players of long ago and at present have tapped into a "discipline" of playing where if they want to impress they can, but they are mostly concerned with making a powerful statement by coloring the simplicity of note choices with complex dynamics and impeccable phrasing.I continue trying to find my way to that path, I have thosunds of miles to go!
No problem Tooka :)
Last Edited by on Feb 15, 2012 9:18 AM
"The Great players of long ago and at present have tapped into a "discipline" of playing where if they want to impress they can, but they are mostly concerned with making a powerful statement by coloring the simplicity of note choices with complex dynamics and impeccable phrasing."
That's a great way of putting it. To me that explains it perfectly. The person who first came to my mind after reading that was Steve Guyger. I'd say he is a classic example of that way of playing.
Nice playing by yourself on "Rocker" too. It would be nice to hear more of your playing.
btw Quite by chance, I discovered your Marine Band customising videos on Youtube the other day and they are very informative and clearly presented. You obviously have a good eye for detail. Thanks. ---------- .__. (°,°) /)_) ” “ Grey Owl YouTube Grey Owl Abstract Photos
King...No doubt - Steve Guyger is the epitome of CLASS when it comes to show business. To see him live is a lesson in constrained intensity. He'll be blowing your mind and when you just think it can't get any better, he brilliantly steps it up another notch and it's like, hold on here we go for another ride,hahahahahahahaha - It's amazing watching a Master like Steve use his polished skills to deliberately play with the audiences musical emotions... Truly incredible to see him do his act up close and personal!
Here is GREAT song that any serious student worth their salt should learn and be able to play...
