To my shame, I didn't make the play-along contest deadline this time --- I was doing some renovations and didn't get at chance to work on it --- and don't have the chops to wing it.
This got me to thinkin' about my weaknesses as a harp player. For the last couple of years I've been focused on learning techniques, positions, scales, and music theory. I'm happy with my progress on those, but realize that I've fallen way behind on actually jamming with actual music, live or otherwise. Anyone else want to fess up about their weaknesses?
I'm just the opposite, I play in bars a few times a week and ramble along as I work , walk my dog and drive my car but I don't practice scales ...I think I have a touch of dyslexia, but my time is ok and I love the expression so I get away with my weakness so far
I practice both of those things. Im not really sure what I need to work on (other then more of the same & having fun), I think I just have to spend more hours woodshedding. Only been playing a few months. Perhaps Ill grab the track & play with it or something to see how it sounds.
Other thing I need to work on would be to get a webcam for my Mac. I dont have one & cant participate in some stuff like this because of it else I would. Anyone know a keep cheap webcam they can recommend (os x 10+)?
The last couple years for me is where I've been absorbing theory and technique as fast as I can, but getting no relative woodshed time to apply or master it. For all I've learned or have as reference, I'm not sure I could play my way out of a paper bag with it. I realized this a few months ago, and have since looked for woodshedding locations or opportunities. While my technique might be in a mixed advanced beginner or slight intermediate, I haven't put it all together to be able to improvise or actively use what I know.
I've been working through Adam's lesson from the 'store'. I've been told by my wife and kids that they're noticing a dramatic improvement since I've started the lessons. I think that prior to that I really had no focus or direction so they have helped in that way.
One thing I'm struggling with and working on are triplets. It's become obvious to me that the way to improve my 'pace' is to be able to play triplets. Althought I'd classify myself an 'advanced beginner' I decided to download the lesson on "Key to the Highway". It has a LOT of triplets and in one stretch, the 6th and 7th bars, Adam strings 7 triplets in a row. I really struggle about midway through them. There's also a spot where he suggests repeating the -3 -4 5 triplet as an exercise and then he demonstrates it. I simply can't seem to nail that fluidly.
MrSo&So: I am right there with you! I feel that I have the exact same weakness. It's exemplified in my contest entry. Watching it back, I think it's very clear that I don;t have enough practice playing along with music/musicians. I don;t always anticipate the changes, I sometimes play inappropriate notes over the chords, and i step all over the tune. Problem is, I'm having a HARD time getting someone to play with. My one friend who wants to play doesn;t have a guitar right now, and he is taking his sweet time finding one. I've got jam tracks, but I kinda don;t like playing along with them. It seems kinda weird and antisocial to me to be playing along with the computer... I'd like a person to talk things over with, and interact and play off of...
4) The 2-hole draw on my A harmonica. Right now it sounds like a nun's stifled fart. Considering the comparatively sonorous quality I get on the 2-hole draw of my Bb, I'm amazed what a difference the semitone makes.
Im feelin all of the above,but my main focus now other than getting quality time in the shed is smoothly switching between different harps.Like from a Golden Melody to a SP20 to a Lee Oskar to a MB and then getting around the harps that I've tweeked and the ones I have;nt.To get all of what Elwood mentioned with all my harps in one session (to make myself say "thats what I want") I start my jam in the car when I go to work,warm up a little more at work and end at home for a couple of hours.Sometimes I can force that progression so I also practice to align my life to make it there. Hope that made sense? Mr so&so- finding a way to jam is sometimes really difficult but crucial.Maybe we can convince Adam to start a mp3 download jam section where any one can add jam tracks.
isaacullah, Check out this site http://openmicarizona.com/jams.html It is a place in your town that has an open mic blues jam. This is a good place to get you chops with other musicians. Start slow and before long you will have a ball.
I am no where near where I want to be. My wife keeps telling me to calm down because I've only been at it 2.5 years, but there I know there is so much more in me I can't get to come out of the harp.
My tone isn't what I want.
I used to have a (IMHO) decent vibrato and I've lost it somewhere.
Timing
Phrasing
Counting music in my head
I think I am a fair improviser, but it's no good if this other stuff stinks.
I seem to be able to play along with a lot of blues classics. I can do a respectable job with Sonny Boy Williamsons's stuff. Some of little Walters stuff. Not like them but not bad to those who listen. But I go back to Harmonica Academy, where I enrolled 10 - 11 months ago to start, and no way I can play fast and accurate enough for the irish fiddle tunes. Hitting a bend fast and accurate. I figure getting that down will help my blues playing. I need to practice more. Structured like Adam's lessons and Harmonica Academy, and play along too.
@ isaccullah I dont know where you live, but finding people to jam with is your next step up the ladder, away from the plateau of boredom/frustration which you now, clearly, find yourself on. You are not alone, this is a normal phase of development between you and the instrument. You might try, as Buddah suggests, not playing the harp at all for a couple of weeks..sounds crazy but instead listen to all sorts of music (not harmonica maybe) ..classical,jazz, whatever in order calm your soul and then pick up a fresh harp again with a new perspective and climb up to your next plateau. Jaybird803 has shown you the path..hunt those guys down and give your all!! Good luck
Hi Isaac--check out this page for places to jam--it's a result from googling "open mics in arizona."
http://www.azopenmic.com/photo.htm
What's antisocial about jamming with CD's and back-tracks? I think it's very social to not subject others to my bleating attempts at a new technique!
I love to have a long drive and my Ipod blasting Clapton tunes and my harp box right there next to a big steaming coffee.
Unfortunately, and more in keeping with this thread, I lack discipline in practicing scales, clean single notes, and low-end bends--I just like to jam. In my lesson with Buddha the first thing he told me to do was practice basics--so I am getting better at that now, but it's still easy to get off into a riff and forget what I'm supposed to be doing.
Last Edited by on May 02, 2009 10:28 AM
oldwailer , I don't think anyone said it was antisocial to jam with CDs or backtrack. Only that playing with other musicians can give you a pleasure and experience that can't be had any other way. Learning to interact with others can certainly help your sense of timing. One of the things that I need to continue to work on is stage presence. I can only do that one place.
Last Edited by on May 02, 2009 11:38 AM
I'm trying to make overblows, but the sound of it is not good (yet). I'm also working on playing with my hands, it's not easy to get a good "wah-wah" sound as I'm holding the harp the way Adam does. By the way, I noticed that in one of his youtube videos, he explains how to "seal" hands in the most common holding position, but not in HIS way of holding the harp.
Well, Jaybird--I agree with you completely, but I was just responding to Isaac's comment:
"I've got jam tracks, but I kinda don;t like playing along with them. It seems kinda weird and antisocial to me to be playing along with the computer... I'd like a person to talk things over with, and interact and play off of...
Of course, there is no substitute for live music--both as a player and as a listener. I went to see Leo Kottke last night--I could have bought 4 or 5 CD's off Itunes for the price--but I came home pleased that I had gotten a good deal--Leo was great to hear in person. . .
I'm not that sure about this, Gloth--but I think you will find Adam using a standard hold on the harp when he plays Sonny Terry stuff--acoustic playing with lots of hand effects like wah wah and pops and hand vibrato. I would think it would be great to learn both ways of holding a harp--
Adam's hold is great for holding a harp and a mic when playing electric--but I think you will always lose some of the hand effects when you go to holding a mic.
I could be wrong here--I only really use a standard grip.
When holding a mic I find you do lose wah wah hand effect because the mic is inside the cup. Its effective to switch to the vocal mic on stand to do this, in fact using the vocal mic means you have to work on tone as well
Hey dudes, thanks for the open mic night links. It's something I've been considering for a little while. I'm still building my nerve up! It'll take some cahones to jump up with some strangers and start to play. Ideally, I'll get my buddy to jam with me a little bit soon. Playing with him will be pretty stress free, and I'm hoping it will give me the experience that I need to gain the confidence to play with strangers at an open mic. As for my comment about jam tracks: Jam tracks are cool and all. They are necessary, and they are definately a great learning tool. But I'm kind of done with them for the time being. I don't like that that music is always the same, the only cues you get are auditory, and that you are still, at the end of the day, playing by yourself. To that end, I've started doing my own audio sampling/looping with a piece of software called Ambiloop (free). Looping is a lot more fulfilling to me than jam tracks. Even though I'm still "playing by myself", it's different. It's a bit more like playing with yourself (pun intended) than playing by yourself. You know what I mean? You are actually creating new music, and you are playing all the parts your self. It does all the things jam tracks do: help you with rythym and timing, help you listen to the rest of the music while playing, helps you with improvisation, etc; bu, to me anyway, it seems much more creative than playing with a canned backing track. It's more fun for me as well, being kind of a "one man band". That all said, I still want to play with other musicians.
Ahh, it's good not to be alone in my anguish. I forgot to mention my crappy hand wahs and weak vibrato! But I think the proponents of the open mic session have a good point. I know there are a few around my city. I just need to get me down there and embarrass myself.
I suppose my biggest hurdle to overcome is embodied in that phrase that jaymcc28 used: '...no focus or direction.'
kudzu's early lessons took me to the next level, i.e. away from single note playing and doing some nice vamping that I really like the sound of. But, once you've improved a bit, it's all too easy to rest on your laurels and think, 'I'm getting good now.' The trouble is, without kicking yourself up the arse, you don't get any better.
I think - and I may be wrong here - that the best way to improve is by finding a course of study that you like, be it kudzu's, Steve Baker's or whoever's, and sticking to it to the bitter end. By the time you've mastered the lessons, you'll be sick of them; but, boy, will you have a solid foundation!
@ The Gloth: A while back, we had a thread about Adam's 'thumbs up' grip versus the standard grip and the problem with wah-wahs with the former:
As for what I'm working on on, I still keep trying to perfect my throat vibrato on a slow blues. I use kudzu's front-porch blues as a sdudy, the last one on that video. Man, is that hard to get just right! ---------- 'If it sounds GOOD to you, it's bitchen; if it sounds BAD to YOU, it's shitty' - Frank Zappa
Everything... and always will. Any time you think, "I don't need to work on that," it's probably time to let some air out of the ego so your head can fit through the door...
In the last two or three months I have finally been able to do some effective tongue blocking. This has helped improve my tone, or at least to say has given me a wider range of tones I can use. I still will purse for fast passages, but after playing that one way for some three decades, TB is something I thought I would never be able to do (old dogs and new tricks)..
When I quit learning, bring a shovel and dig the hole deep....
OW, Ambiloop is definately addictive! It gets really cool when you start using the keyboard shortcuts. I've seen folks that take an old keyboard, selectively remove most of the keys, and then use the remaining keys as a "footpedal" to control the software while they play. Now that's cool! ---------- -------------- The magnificent YouTube channel of the internet user known as "isaacullah"
sounds pretty awesome isaacuallah... It makes a lot of sense IMO. Mixing the effects on the computer is sooo much easier and cheaper. You can then put the effects on a little midi gadget and take it wherever you go...
Like Brandon in this vid (if I'm correct):
The stuff I work on at the moment is getting structure into my jams.
I need to play along with SBW until I can imitate him perfectly. Then I need to play along with Rice Miller until I can imitate him perfectly. Then I need to...(etc for 10 more players)
I was listening to and reading John Gindick's Rock 'n' Blues Harmonica yesterday. Weird, weird, weird! I thought it was junk at first, but after a while it started to grow on me. Don't listen to the CD with phones, though, as the left hand channel has the voice and harp, and the right hand channel has the band, and there's a brick wall between them!
Last Edited by on May 04, 2009 11:54 PM
I still refer to Gindick's book every now and again--and I still jam to the CD sometimes. The book is deceptive--there is a ton of good information laid out in a very simple way. . .
I need to work more on controlling my bends, especially on that 3 draw. I need to pay more attention to my intonation on the 1 and 2 holes.
I also need to pick up more scales to expand my chops. Mainly on 1st and 3rd position. Wouldn't hurt to learn more than that to get even more familiar with the instrument.
Another thing I'm really unhappy with is my timing. It could use a lot more refinement for sure. ---------- http://www.youtube.com/harmonicazhin
Yeah, I like that Gindick jam 'cos it just goes on and on with every variation possible and you can pretty much do what you want over it, whereas if you are jamming with SBW, you have just 2 1/2 minutes to get it right, and my CD player is too expensive for me to want to go backwards and forwards working things out.(that sounds ignorant and negative - it's not so bad - plugged into the back of my $1500 CD player I have a $40 DVD player which I can use to thrash things out!)
Last Edited by on May 05, 2009 12:02 AM
I got Gindick's rock n blues book as well. I hope to translate the simple text into something complex as well but I guess that would come with practice. I keep practicing along with the Hilbert jam tracks and forgot I got that lengthy CD that I dont have to restart every few mins. Other then as a jam CD & source of some riffs how are you guys using the material?
I definately could use more focus. - I know part of my problem is the lack of vibrato in my playing. I try to practice by doing really fast triplets without moving my tongue & mouthing some nonsense words. How would you guys suggest to practice for better vibrato? - Trying to practice the major & blues scales of positions 1-3 constantly. Only problem is that Im missing the overblows for first position. I should probably learn to add those to my practice as well. - Just plain ol' musicality. I dont sound very musical (to myself) & often am redundant when jamming with jam tracks. Thats part of why I didnt run to best buy to ask about webcams I could use yet, lol.
