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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
Quotes from the past
Quotes from the past
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AW
107 posts
Mar 09, 2012
8:48 AM
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If you browse the for sale thread, you'll know that I picked up a pile of old harmonica music books. Only one was blues related from 1967, but it has a section which expresses a concept that has been repeat here by many.
"...mastering the technique is only the beginning. The actual truth of the blues lies as much in what you say as in how you say it. It's like learning a language--naturally you want to be able to speak it fluently enough to communicate, but even the most polished and correct speaking won't mean a thing to a native if all you're talking about is the pen of his grandmother--dig? Same thing with music--the flashiest, fanciest, fantastic-est mouth harp technique is wasted unless it's used to help tell the story or paint the mood."
"After all, Sonny already sounds like Sonny--and he IS Sonny. And you ain't. But you're something he's not--and that's you."
Nothing new for this forum, but I thought it was interesting. On a funnier note, here's what they say in "20 Years of 20 Hits for Harmonica" from 1953. (a book for ostensibly diatonic and chromatic harmonica)
"A circle around a number indicates that the note is to be played a half-tone higher. On the diatonic harmonica, this is accomplished by "forcing" the tone- that is, by blowing or drawing the breather harder than when playing the natural tone. On the chromatic harmonica, the use of the lever produces the note a half tone higher."
Of course! It all makes sense now.
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Honkin On Bobo
1005 posts
Mar 09, 2012
8:53 AM
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"On the diatonic harmonica, this is accomplished by "forcing" the tone- that is, by blowing or drawing the breather harder than when playing the natural tone"
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I hope barbequebob doesn't see this (then again, maybe the author was just in cahoots with the harp makers and reed repairers).
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isaacullah
1850 posts
Mar 09, 2012
12:18 PM
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Hey AW, are those first two quotes from the Tony "Little Son" Glover book? They seem really familiar to me... The ASU library had the LP that accompanied that book, and I checked it out and had a listen... I could swear that's what he said verbatim... Cool quotes!
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