harp-er
67 posts
Mar 22, 2012
8:26 AM
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I don't have much in the way of feedback from experienced and skilled harp players, so I'm taking a leap and posting a link to a track that I just recorded, and any helpful feedback on my playing is appreciated. I know the recording quality is mediocre, and that's not what I'm interested in hearing about.
I just used the integrated mic on my HP laptop, along with Audacity software. I don't know anything about recording, or mics, or amps. I've been playing acoustic, and like that, and will probably just stay with it for now.
The backing track is one of the Lawrence Fritts tracks that we were talking about here a coupla months back, key of E, and I'm using a GM in A, second position, which is all I know anything about.
This is a bit scary, so go easy on me! I have no professional or performance experience. Just whittling away "on the back porch", so to speak. Thanks in advance.
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Matthew
Last Edited by on Mar 22, 2012 2:52 PM
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Greyowlphotoart
986 posts
Mar 22, 2012
10:17 AM
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I'd say that was a pretty decent effort for a maiden voyage and you didn't hit any icebergs.
You had lots of ideas and techniques in the piece and even tossed in a few OB's.
Your heart is in your mouth when you submit a vid on the Forum, so well done.
Improved tone is something we all work on and there were occasions when the notes could have sounded richer esp 5 draw. Nice tone around the 1 minute mark.
Some of the notes on the quicker riffs were a bit random and didn't sound quite as coherent.
All in all I think you can be pretty satisfied with that effort.
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Grey Owl YouTube
Grey Owl Abstract Photos
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harp-er
68 posts
Mar 22, 2012
11:09 AM
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Coming from you, I take that with humble gratitude. Many thanks.
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Matthew
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nacoran
5431 posts
Mar 22, 2012
11:57 AM
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Nice.
I noticed you were having a couple issues in a couple threads with HTML and embeding.
I tried to embed your soundclick file for you, but it won't embed correctly, so I still had to listen with cut and paste. I use Drop Box for embeding. Anyone who uses soundclick have any ideas? You can also embed the link itself so people can just click it to go to the page instead of having to cut and paste.
The forum how-to page (link is right under the forum creed) has some information on little tricks for getting stuff to work. There is also a dedicated page for experimenting with embeding and stuff like that-
Practice Your Forum Skills
You can post a thread, like you did, to test something, but if you post it in the practice your forum skills thread there are several people who are good at coding who will notice that page has popped back up and check to see if you need any help.
Also, if you do screw up a post, you can always edit it. That way you can fix without having to start a new thread. :)
Nice post. I'll see if I can't figure out what is up with soundclick and update the how-to page.
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Nate
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Thread Organizer (A list of all sorts of useful threads)
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harpdude61
1315 posts
Mar 22, 2012
12:50 PM
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Great to see a new GM overblower!
Not bad for first time. That one fast lick you repeat several times on the low holes sounds a bit bubbly at times but really not bad. Sounds like you are developing a "feel" for the blues so keep at it. Were you trying to get the 7 overdraw at one point? The OBs were not bad. One was a tad flat. Sounds like you have nice tone as well.
Congrats and keep at it!
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harpdude61
1316 posts
Mar 22, 2012
3:07 PM
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I listened again. Correct me if I'm wrong but you did play the 7 overdraw. Good job. Have you been playing long?
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harp-er
69 posts
Mar 22, 2012
3:28 PM
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@harpdude61, thanks for your comments. I do appreciate the encouragement. Yes, I played the 7OD - quickly; it wasn't with great control I'm afarid, and the 6OB, which I think was better. Sometimes I can get that 7OD better, but not always. To some extent it seems to depend on how well I've been able to set up the reeds, which isn't always very well, and how well they then respond.
I've been playing for 14 months. I grew up playing jazz drums from age 11- that's a very long time ago! I think my natural leaning is toward jazz really more than blues per se (but let's not forget that jazz, as BB King put it, is the "higher education" of the blues. You can't really separate them). But I don't delude myself that I'm ever gonna be able to play much in the way of jazz harp. I enjoy the improvisational aspect of blues most of all.
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Matthew
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harpdude61
1318 posts
Mar 22, 2012
3:42 PM
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Nice job for 14 months. Hey , if jazz is your thing go for it. Being an overbender is pretty much a must to play many jazz styles on diatonic. Look up the late Chris Michalek on youtube. He was known here as Buddha. He did some jazz lessons. I'm sure others on here know much more about jazz diatonic than I do and probably have great suggestions.
Stay after those overbends and learn to dial those reed gaps in. Once you learn to open up and play the overbends fat they become just another note.
I hope you have followed some pretty good recent threads on tone, tongue blocking, lip blocking, bending, and relaxation.
Best of luck!
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