I sat in with a friend's band last week. It was too crowded to set up my video recorder in the room, so I recorded from behind the band. The harp's nothing great, but I really like this video, because it captures how we all see gigs, instead of the audience view. I thought y'all could relate.
Feel free to critique, that's always welcome. I didn't mention it because it was about the view, not the harp.
And yes, due to space reasons, my amp was way off to the side, pointed away from me, so there's not much to hear from this side (my closed back amp is pretty directional). I'm told it was fine in the room.
I know it was kind of a fluke, but you should keep Doin em. I like it.
If you feel like getting fancy you could run a small mic out of the camera to out front. So we could hear you next time. 8^)> . But the harp sounded good.
Keep em comin. ---------- "Trust Those Who Seek The Truth. Doubt Those Who Say They Have Found It."
You can obviouly play, and it takes balls to put yourself out there for others to hear.
Based on what I heard, your phrasing is a little scattered because your timing needs work.
I really like the fact that you don't overplay, you are real close to being a good player. Not implying your bad! You can play blues!
Listen very closely to some blues music with and without harp and try to hear the chord changes from the guitar. Try to play along in the right key focusing on those changes.
When you get to the point where you can anticipate the chord changes from the guitar player, your phrasing will improve drastically.
From what I heard, it sounds like you have a grasp on a I IV V 12 bar blues progression, but not 100%. I may be wrong?
Very very interesting. Thanks for putting this out there, Garry. I'll salute you first for your insight about what particular angle of vision in a performance video would capture the interest of.....us. I was captured. I said, "I've been in THAT space many times."
I'll confess in advance that I skipped around a bit, rather than watching 8+ minutes straight through. Modern distraction.
I've got many thoughts. My first thought is: good job. I don't hear many false moves on your part. Our creed as blues harp guys should be the Hippocratic oath: First, do no harm. I.e.: When in doubt, don't step on anybody's toes.
Secondly, did they--meaning the guitar player, not the band--actually give you a solo?
It seems to me that your guitar player is the Big Cheese. And that's OK, if that's how the band works. The drummer, to your left, and the keyboard player, to your right, are sitting down. What's noticeable, at least to me, is that you and the guitar player are both standing, and he is dominating the stage at every single moment. (Again: I was skipping around.) Albert Collins did that. BB certainly did that. I'm just saying: you're a harp player in a guitar-driven blues band. It's worth saying that, acknowledging that, and then figuring out what space you've got to play with.
I think that you could probably have walked out INTO the audience on this one, and played your solo, and gyrated in various ways, and in that fashion have upstaged the guitarist. You didn't do that. But it's worth us all acknowledging that you COULD have done that.
The question is: Should you have done that?
My feeling is that you could probably have a talk with the guitarist, and suggest to him that perhaps on this particular slow blues it would make sense for you to step forward and do that--at least on one gig--and see what happens.
Your origional post was interesting though adam. The first issue i wonder about (as a former sound man) is feedback. I have had vocalist, guitar players, sax players, etc. Walk throught the crowd, but the harp mic is alot hotter. Do you think this would work? And have you done this and/or is this something that is done with harp players? Feedback issues would very with the room and type of sound system i suppose, but i was interested to hear more about this. ---------- "Trust Those Who Seek The Truth. Doubt Those Who Say They Have Found It."
@harpaholic: Good points, especially regarding my timing, which I know is poor. So many things to work on. I keep a list, which seems to continually grow.
@adam: There is a solo at 3:10 and a duet of sorts at 5:23. Both your comments are pretty accurate. Clarence is indeed The Man, and he's working with several of us from his jam to get a band together. So while on this night I wasn't part of the band proper, it's more than a random sit in. He likes my playing (go figure), and wants to feature me in place of the horns/sax he's had in prior bands. So he's right there with you pushing me out front, which I'm still getting used to. Not my nature.
For what it's worth, this isn't a blues band, more Jazz, Funk and R&B. So I'm working on playing the melodies on tunes like Get Ready (huge fun), Papa Was A Rolling Stone, Thank You, Slippin' Into Darkness, Ain't No Sunshine, Use Me, Superstition, etc. It's a stretch for me, but a great opportunity.
It's also unusual for Clarence to play guitar, he's mostly on bass and/or keys. This track (no harp) from that night is more typical, especially the way he conducts the band, whose members are mostly new to the song. I played this at a gig Friday (where I *was* part of the band (it's complicated)) for the first time. Did a credible job, not great, but it'll be really cool once I get it down pat.
