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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
Ok, I'm Shameless
Ok, I'm Shameless
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Tommy the Hat
580 posts
Aug 10, 2012
2:11 PM
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Hi everyone,
I haven't been around in a long while...if anyone remembers me. I was/am a beginner to intermediate harp player. However, many times as I was practicing and recording or showing people my newly found harp skills, I would get comments on the vocals I was providing to accompany my harp playing. I always loved singing and have sung for many years to, if only to myself. But after getting some comments on my singing and then seeing some posts here on Roger Love's book "Set Your Voice Free" I decided to start studying vocals more. That of course led to more and so my harp playing fell off and the singing practice grew.
Actually I have messed around with learning other instruments before and it seems I always end up singing more than I play. So, I now have gone full bore. I have sung out a few times with some success. I'm still learning and improving. I'm not claiming anything here and not trying to say I'm the next greatest thing...lol
I'm just shamelessly plugging myself and my new/old love. I do mostly Blues and Blues based rock as well as some soul and classic rock here and there. The harp has helped me a lot with singing actually. Phrasing. And when I was playing harp, singing had helped my phrasing there so it's all about the music right? And this forum is about not only harp but the blues also...right?
So we have been friends and I was a member here and from here I developed into what I am doing now. My Blues education grew here.
So here are some songs from me. Just note that I have them saved to a host site only so I can record myself and save them. They aren't major productions nor is the recording any good. I'm not too savvy with that stuff. No effects or mixing, I just hit record, then save and post...lol.
So these are all pretty much practice songs rather than quality productions. But it gives an idea on where I want to go and what I've been doing as well as my progress.
Thanks for listening, and all the help I received here :)
Tommy's Dirt And Soul
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Tommy
Last Edited by on Aug 10, 2012 2:18 PM
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SuperBee
493 posts
Aug 10, 2012
3:16 PM
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Good to hear from you Tommy. Do you recommend that book for aspiring vocalists?
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KC69
246 posts
Aug 10, 2012
3:48 PM
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SuperBee: I enjoyed the book and the accompanying cd. Great book to get started and cd for training skills. Jimi Lee suggested the book to me a few years ago. Last year at HCH he said that he still works the exercises.
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And I Thank You !!
KCz
Backwoodz
Bluz
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Pistolcat
253 posts
Aug 10, 2012
3:52 PM
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Great to hear from you Tommy! I just said the other day: "Where, oh, where is Tommy" Your singing is good! It has got better too! I liked Stormy monday and Georgia on my mind and your version of Proud mary. Kind of melancholic and would fit a fingerpicked acoustic version very nice.
And keeping your posting here,too! Check out the video with john lee hooker and van morrison. I think the tread topic was something about Underblowing 4 or something like that. I'd figure that to be right up your alley.
...Now check my latest youtubes! :)
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Pistolkatt - Pistolkatts youtube
Last Edited by on Aug 10, 2012 3:53 PM
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Tommy the Hat
581 posts
Aug 10, 2012
3:52 PM
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@superbee
I think Roger Love it is a good place to start. It's a good book for beginners to learn about their voice and get a feel for what he calls middle voice and others refer to as mixed voice. Like anything else everyone has a different name for the same thing. In any case it is learning the difference between chest and head voice and what's in between (mixed).
But there is a lot more to is and he doesn't cover a lot of it. Like I said, a good beginner book. Like anything else it takes time and daily practice and exercise.
Anne Peckham's The Contemporary Singer: Elements of Vocal Technique is pretty good and more extensive. But Roger Love's book has all the middle voice exercises. Her book, IMO would be a next step. Both come with CD's.
PistolKatt.
I haven't been around but I still regularly check in on your Youtube channel. Your playing has really gotten good. Your last video was really good imo.
I'm glad you liked those songs. Georgia went through a few changes before settling on my own version. Proud Mary was a test of my own take. Some liked it some didn't...a few flat spots. I might re-do it at some point. At the moment I'm working on some new stuff.
When i did a video here of me playing "Redhouse" (Jimi Hendrix) and sang along, my vocals got more response than my harp i think...lol. So I did a harpless version I think is much better!!
Thanks for listening.
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Tommy
Last Edited by on Aug 10, 2012 4:04 PM
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Pistolcat
255 posts
Aug 10, 2012
4:17 PM
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Thanks Tommy. You know, it's really comforting that your still around feeling the blues. I got worried that you've fallen of the earth when your YT went down and the hiatus in posting.
I'm shedding Mojo working in F (have another BT in A, too) at the moment and have got the head more or less down. Maybe we ought to do a recordning together? I send you a track with backingtrack+head. You record vocals and send that back (I can do the mixing) and then I just fill in solos and fills? Could be fun, eh?
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Pistolkatt - Pistolkatts youtube
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Tommy the Hat
582 posts
Aug 10, 2012
4:34 PM
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Actually Pistol, I have two versions of Stevie Ray Vaughan's "Life By The Drop" recorded on my page and one is a collaboration with someone I've never met who lives in Texas (I'm in PA). He sent me a guitar track and I did the vocals to it. So yes, it could be fun. My Email is in my profile, keep in touch either way.
Just another note concerning my cover songs. As I used to say when I played harp, I don't like copying the original. To me, that's already been done. If you want the original then buy the original! I like to see what someone can do with a song and that is what I like to do, my own rendition. However I don't like to stray from the original melody all that much. So my covers are a bit different from the originals and that is just me; it's my preference. The only problem is that I'm singing to backing tracks and I am pretty much locked in to them. I can't stray very far. Not like as if I had a band behind me and I could actually do my very own version.
Well, I fear I've taken up too much space on a non harp topic. Sorry, I should have gave the subject line an "O.T."
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Tommy
Last Edited by on Aug 10, 2012 4:34 PM
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