Jim Rumbaugh
1074 posts
Jan 10, 2015
8:34 PM
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My 2 Hours with Walter Tore, lesson 1
“Don’t make excuses about your equipment, just play”
Walter had been talking about being yourself and not someone else when you play. He did a few spontobeat acoustic tunes to demonstrate. I decided to share my style of playing. I reached in my pocket and pulled out the only harp I had with me. I said,“This D harp has the 4 blow blown out, so I’m not sure what I can do”
That’s when Walter shared:
“I don’t want to hear you complaining about your harps. I just want to hear you play. When your playing with the big boys, they don’t want to hear you whine. They want you to play or get out of there. A bunch of the guys I know had junk to play. Some didn’t even own a guitar or amp. They would just use whatever they could get their hands on to get the gig done.”
It’s a good lesson. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard other people do just what I did, start off with an apology before the first note was played. In retrospect, I have to agree. I don’t care to hear others start talking about how they aren’t going to be their best because of some piece of equipment. We all can tell if it’s good or not regardless of the hardware.
I’ll try to not whine before playing in the future. Walter is right.
And I did fine with out that 4 blow. I did some major pentatonic scales from 1 draw to 10 draw and never needed that 4 blow. Take what you got and make music with it.
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Tuesday Jan 6, 2015 I visited from 7 pm to 9 pm with Walter Tore at his home in Granville, OH. Walter had just gotten over the flu and wasn’t in the mood to jam. We just talked about music in general. He pulled out a 10 hole and 14 hole diatonic and did 2 spontobeat tunes during our talk. I was impressed and honored as I realized very few people have heard Walter play acoustic. Most of his recordings are with playing harp in a rack. Walter makes great use of his hands and puts out a tone that reminded me of the playing of Phil Wiggins or Joe Filisko. I learned a few things that night.
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theharmonicaclub.com (of Huntington, WV)
Last Edited by Jim Rumbaugh on Jan 11, 2015 7:07 AM
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BronzeWailer
1572 posts
Jan 11, 2015
12:44 AM
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Thanks for sharing this Jim.
BronzeWailer's YouTube
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tookatooka
3720 posts
Jan 11, 2015
4:56 AM
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Forgive me Jim but If I was going to a two hour lesson with Walter, I would have taken all my rig and harps plus reserves. Why did you go so badly prepared? Don't make sense.
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Jim Rumbaugh
1075 posts
Jan 11, 2015
7:00 AM
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@Tooka
I was not going for a lesson, but I got more then one lesson anyway.
I had told Walter I would be in his area for a trade show and arranged a stop by. The day before, I confirmed the get together. He said he was not feeling good and did not want to jam. I was prepared to just talk, which was 90% of what we did. My belt of harps was in the car if needed. I have recently lost my "traveling harp", a Big River in C. I just happened to have the damaged D. I'll talk about the damaged D in another thread.
BTW. The first time I visited Walter I came with harps, bass, and guitar. I just do what I;m told :)
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theharmonicaclub.com (of Huntington, WV)
Last Edited by Jim Rumbaugh on Jan 11, 2015 7:00 AM
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tookatooka
3721 posts
Jan 11, 2015
7:21 AM
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Oh! I see now. :)
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arzajac
1546 posts
Jan 11, 2015
7:23 AM
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I was listening to Hooker and Heat yesterday. I find a lot of similarities between John Lee Hooker and Walter Tore's approach. There is a freedom there.
It seems to me that Hooker has a short list of melody templates to chose from and he often spontaneously invents the lyrics to tell the story. He's not playing a song, he's channeling the blues. He often took liberties with the chord changes, too....
You can't do that in Rock and Roll, or popular music. You can do that in jazz, though. Both Hooker and Walter Tore use that approach to tell their stories.
“I don’t want to hear you complaining about your harps. I just want to hear you play." That's a nice dose of discipline to contrast the freedom I just mentioned. It sounds like your time with Walter was a real lesson in blues! You're a lucky guy, Jim!
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Custom overblow harps. Harmonica service and repair.
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waltertore
2787 posts
Jan 11, 2015
8:56 AM
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It was great to see Jim again. I live pretty much in musical isolation. Hardly a soul knows me as a musician around here so our get together was a real gift. Life is good and I feel blessed to have had another musician stop by for a chat. I never have been interested in the technical side of music or instruments. I have always been drawn to seeking out the greats and the stories that want to come out of me and they never stop. I could never keep up with them so my music time is pretty much just doing my songs. It is completely addicting and like any addict I stick to my habit no matter what it might do to my musical career :-). Any harp lover is welcome to stop by.
arzajac: Thanks for the compliment. I find letting stories come out of me with no thinking music going is the easiest thing to do. Thinking chords, beats, make that impossible for me. Everything has to be thought free. There are people out there the think up on the spot lyrics. My thing is like the old Gumby tv show where he and pokey literally walk into books and they enter into the story as 3-D as our normal world. Luckily I am a simple player and what you hear is all I know and don't have to dumb down. Walter
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walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year in the Tunnel of Dreams Studio.
" life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
my videos
Last Edited by waltertore on Jan 11, 2015 2:50 PM
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sudsy
26 posts
Jan 26, 2015
4:50 PM
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Reading Walter Tore's response to Junior Wells teaches harmonica reminded me of this thread by Jim. I had the pleasure of meeting Walter a couple years ago at a Columbus gathering and I asked him how he could spontaneously come up with a song. His response was that he was playing for the people on the dance floor. Seeing how there was no dance floor and no dancers I was confused.. then I watched him. I could tell there was no doubt in his mind he was playing in a juke joint for a group of sweaty dancers. Watching them getting caught in his groove. Still amazes me. Some things cannot be explained in words.
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GEEZER1
218 posts
Jan 26, 2015
7:13 PM
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Enjoyed these thanks Walter. Thanks.
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waltertore
2797 posts
Jan 28, 2015
4:52 PM
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sudsy: I am trying to place you. I struggle with these internet tag names. Thanks for remembering me.
Geezer1: You are welcome. Life is pretty simple if I stay out my way. Walter
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walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year in the Tunnel of Dreams Studio.
" life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
my videos
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shakeylee
69 posts
Jan 28, 2015
5:48 PM
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learning not to complain about gear or technical difficulties was an important lesson.
TBH,when someone complains (i usually play this song in another key but the dog ate my homework)my ears just tune out.they could be good,but they lost me!
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