|
Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
Developing Good Listening Skills
Developing Good Listening Skills
Page:
1
barbequebob
2799 posts
Dec 24, 2014
10:26 AM
|
Here's a video from David Barrett with Andy Santana about developing good listening skills, which means not just listening to harmonica only or just whatever the lead instrument happens to be, something too many harp players are notoriously guilty of:
It's all about paying attention all of the so called "little stuff" that too many think of as too boring or too unimportant to pay attention to, but they're usually the very things that hang you BIG TIME!!!!
----------
Sincerely,
Barbeque Bob Maglinte
Boston, MA
http://www.barbequebob.com
CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
|
KC69
419 posts
Dec 24, 2014
12:07 PM
|
Thanks Bob !!! Needed to hear that !!!
----------
And I Thank You !!
KCz
Backwoodz
Bluz
|
Littoral
1179 posts
Dec 24, 2014
1:45 PM
|
Absolutely true, spot on, excellent advice and description. But to most anyone that doesn't understand it already the concepts are like some ethereal zen grasshopper shaman speak without context. Eventually they still have to pick up the harp and do something with it.
Roller Coaster is a good analogy for advanced players to consider what LW is hearing to create that piece but I think something simpler would be MUCH more helpful to less advanced players. Harp from Tom Petty or Super Tramp for example. That harp works so well because of its placement within the context of the complete tune which can only be accomplished by knowing/hearing/listening for the placement. It's not difficult harp but it sure does work. I'm certainly not trying to counter anything Andy said here but just add thoughts on listening, which I am fanatical about. What I like so much about listening is how liberating it can be for harp. We can cop ideas off of everything -lock in with the kick drum, hi-hat, or a syncopation between the two -harmonize part of the bass line just to give emphasis in the chorus... It's endless and we have so much available to us as harp players to compliment a song. Including, or especially (as Andy notes), nothing.
Watch messing with the vocals though -dangerous territory, and I do mean territory. I do confess to liking harp support underneath the singer during a chorus or choice vocal lines just for harmonic emphasis -but I try to be stealth about it and add just enough harmony underneath that most people won't recognize where it's coming from. Gotta listen real careful though.
Last Edited by Littoral on Dec 24, 2014 1:47 PM
|
Finnegan
2 posts
Dec 24, 2014
2:36 PM
|
Listen. This THE best advice to give to any musician.
Listen to the music but more importantly listen to the musicians you're playing with.
About a year after I started playing penny whistle my teacher put me in touch with a local session. Session etiquette says if you're new you just sit in for the first couple of weeks get the feel of how the session is and then when invited, join in some tunes. I was invited to play the second week and played one or two tunes an evening which is usually 2 1/2 to 3 hours. For the first 3 months I just sat and listened, listened to the melody, listened to the guitars and they're chord changes and rhythm, then as time went on I played more and more. BTW there's not sheet music at sessions so it's all ear work.
Now 7 years on this has given me a great base to work from.
I'm hoping this is going to rub off on to my harmonica playing.
----------
Happiness is taking things as they are.
|
Joe_L
2555 posts
Dec 27, 2014
2:34 PM
|
Andy is an excellent bandleader, vocalist, harp player and guitrist. He knows how he wants his music to sound. He always features some of the best players that the area has to offer in his bands.
----------
The Blues Photo Gallery
|
Kingley
3790 posts
Dec 28, 2014
12:13 AM
|
Andy Santana is a monster harp player with superb tone. He has a lot of cool music out there and comes across as a very knowledgeable guy who has a real passion for the music.
|
barbequebob
2800 posts
Dec 29, 2014
11:23 AM
|
The most important message being conveyed in this video here is that far too often, ESPECIALLY in open jams, too many players, be it harp players or whatever instrument you can name, are often times guilty of listening ONLY to solos and themselves and then they wonder why they're getting dissed so damned much and listening to just solos and just themselves is nothing but flat out CRAPPY listening skills and too often the way that the vast majority of jam hacks are listening to the music. This is something that separates the pros and the jam hacks, because TRULY good musicians, especially pros and paying attention to EVERY LITTLE DETAIL OF WHAT'S GOING ON AROUND THEM 24/7/365 AND ALWAYS REMEMBERING THAT THERE'S ABSOLUTELY NO SUCH THING AS A DETAIL TOO SMALL, TOO BORING OR TOO UNIMPORTANT TO PAY ATTENTION TO.
Listening to other instruments and copping ideas and then adapting them to harmonica is something that the vast majority of pros, be it you own heroes or not, are ALWAYS doing and yet the average player only listens harp and nothing else, which is something that's incredibly DUMB and puts tons of SEVERE limitations on what you're able to accomplish, but far too many players are just too hard headed to understand that. Heck, the easiest example for me to show you is Little Walter and how he adapted stuff he listened to, reworked, imitated and played from constant listening to big band and jump blues horn players, and the same goes for William Clarke. With Roller Coaster, if you take time to listen to the great jazz saxman Illinois Jacquet, you can clearly hear where LW got many of the ideas he played on Roller Coaster from.
Part of being a truly good musician is also developing good listening skills. Just listening to soloing and yourself only is NOT good listening skills, and doing that is listen to music like a jam hack and those are flat out CRAPPY listening skills.
This is an IMPORTANT topic for discussion that it s FAR more important to the constant threads I see too often in diatonic harmonica forums where the longest and most heated discussions tend to be far too often about microphones, amplifiers and effect pedals AKA gear, and listening skills is an IMPORTANT part of good overall musicianship and great gear does NOT equal great musicianship, not now, not EVER!!!!
----------
Sincerely,
Barbeque Bob Maglinte
Boston, MA
http://www.barbequebob.com
CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
|
Post a Message
|
