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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
When you're hot
When you're hot
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Leatherlips
117 posts
Jul 19, 2012
4:09 PM
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Played with my band at an open mic situation last night and I was greatly pleased with my playing as was the audience.
I wish I could play equally well on all numbers we use. At present it's 73 and rising and I find it hard to come up with new stuff for everything we play.
Of course, it's easier if there is already a harp player in the number we are doing and I can get new ideas from them, but most of what we do does not have that so I'm stuck with being an inventor.
Yes, it comes with time, but when it's presented just a few weeks after it's been introduced to the band, I feel as though I'm waffling somewhat. Yeah, I know, most people are not going to notice, but it's me who wants it to be better.
Anyhow, that's the rave for today.
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jbone
1010 posts
Jul 19, 2012
7:29 PM
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i am a longtime- 40 YEARS- improviser. very very seldom have i memorized ANY harp part note for note. that said, i have participated with bands doing songs that had very minimal harp parts and it was good training and discipline for me. sometimes i would have 2 notes, done 4 times in a whole song. BUT those 8 notes would be integral to that song.
that's history though. in recent years i have made good progress in both 1st and 3rd position, which in turn has forced me out of the same old rut with 2nd position, a real blessing.
i don't know how long you have played or what sort of experience you have had L-L, but let me ask you this- how many of those 73 songs get done in a given night? less than half i would guess. and if you do different position playing where it's apropos, you have a lot of possibilities every time out.
wife and i in our duo have about that number of songs in our master gig book. currently she can play maybe 10 or 12 in a row before she has to stop for health reasons. so those songs on a given excursion- on thestreet or doing a set at a benefit or jam- have to really pop. and this is when i try and find some new twist to at least a few of them.
see, for me, a stage is a lab. after 4 decades my biggest realization- and most exciting- is that the possibilities are endless in a given song or set.
music is a set of rules, true, but they are very forgiving rules if you have enough information and experience.
maybe you can go into a gig with a new attitude- and maybe that idea of the lab and the opportunity to make stuff pop can take you to a new place.
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http://www.reverbnation.com/jawboneandjolene
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000386839482
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wa7La7yYYeE
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Leatherlips
118 posts
Jul 19, 2012
8:35 PM
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Hi Jbone, yeah I've been playing on and off for around 25 years and I play 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 5th positions. What I have been doing lately is to not and try playing 20 different notes in the one song. I used to think that was the way to go, but realised that hanging on a single note or a simple riff can be just as effective.
I think it's true to say that we usually are our own worst critics, so I may be concerned over nothing.
Doesn't stop me however, from striving for better things.
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jbone
1011 posts
Jul 20, 2012
3:56 AM
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good! you probably do fine.
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http://www.reverbnation.com/jawboneandjolene
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000386839482
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wa7La7yYYeE
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TheoBurke
45 posts
Jul 20, 2012
10:11 AM
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So glad to hear you had an inspired night of blowing your harp, Nothing gives you a charge better than being in a room full of people who dig what you're laying down.
It's perfectly okay to invent your own stuff when playing a classic ; that is exactly what I look for in a harp player , someone with their own ideas and style, their own personality. I remember an interview Paul Butterfield gave in Downbeat decades ago in which he admitted that he couldn't learn the solos Little Walter , James Cotten or anyone else were playing, aside from nicking a lick or a fill here and there. He was already into his own groove , as inspired by the geniuses he admired, to replicate solos note for note. He became a harmonica genius himself. I wish the same for you.
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Ted Burke
http://youtube.com/watch?v=-VPUDjK-ibQ&feature=relmfu
ted-burke.com
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