This was told to me tonight and I've never heard it before, that LW played the harp both right-side-up AND upside-down. It's not in Scott Dirk's book at all as far as I can remember.. I have much respect for my source but am curious if anyone else has ever heard this??
---------- 4' 4+ 3' 2~~~ -Mike Ziemba Harmonica is Life!
Last Edited by slaphappy on Jun 03, 2017 10:26 PM
Only 524 posts to go Nate ;-) A very good player i know has a technique where if he is going to play a lot in the top octave of a harp he turns the harp over and 'cups' it. Takes a lot of practice but if you can get your head around it it turns those high notes into another animal altogether.
Photos of him holding a chromatic all show him holding it right side up.
Close viewing of the video for "Little Walter's Jump" show him holding it in his left hand (as per usual from most right handed, right-side-up players) and moving in a way that's consistent with holding it right side up - notice especially when he makes a quick move between holes 1 and 2 draw - you can see the quick rightward move from 1 to 2.
On the studio recording of "Long as I Have You" he starts with Draw 9 to 8, pauses, then starts again with Draw 2 to 3 and launches into his solo. I'm pretty sure he had the harp upside down in his hands by accident when he started and played 9-8 instead of 2-3.
I think a lot of players experiment and try playing upside down and sideways, and maybe even get proficient at these alternatives, but I'm not sure it proves much other than that they goofed around and experimented. =========== Winslow
he's got in the right hand and is playing on right side of the harp! I guess he could be playing upper octave but that looks like upside down playing to me because of the hold
---------- 4' 4+ 3' 2~~~ -Mike Ziemba Harmonica is Life!
Last Edited by slaphappy on Jun 03, 2017 2:35 PM
I think that photo is back to front. His watch is on his right wrist also the ring on his right hand. Other photos show him in the habit of wearing that ring on left hand, ditto the watch is usually on left wrist. Can't see enough detail to say for sure but if I squint and use a lot of imagination it looks like the forehead scarring also bears out the idea.
Superbee, you beat me to it! I was reading down the thread and stopped to go look for other pictures before I got to your post. I think you are almost certainly right. I was looking at the rings, but the watch is a real giveaway...
(Unless, that is, he was severe dyslexic. Some dyslexics get left and right confused easily and might be more prone to getting things 'backwards' from day to day. Anyone have any samples of his handwriting?)
That happened pretty easily back in the day of negatives. The famous picture of Billy the Kid that every fan of the Old West saw suggested he was a lefty, but then someone noticed a detail about the rifle he was holding and realized that because of the direction it loaded the negative had to be backwards.
Cyclodan, that seems to be proof that he could play it 'right side up', but the original question was could he play it both ways...
Now Sonny Boy II, I know played the harp with one end stuck in his mouth... he starts that at about 2:05 on this video...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOFbfY-wY1I
And this guy plays with his nose (as do a bunch of other people on YouTube, including one who eats a banana while he does it.
And there is a guy who plays his harmonica backwards and uses his fingers to block holes (can't find his video right now. He plays normally as well).
It's easy to find if someone played one way if that was the common way to do so. To rule out that they also played another way sometimes, that's tricky. You'd need video of him doing it the other way, or at least a picture where the harp was clearly upside down and it was clear the negative wasn't flipped. Or get confirmation from a reliable source.
According to an old post in the forum archives by slackwater...
"Well according to Buddy Guy, in his book 'When I left Home'(Pg. 128), "Little Walter turned his harmonica upside down and played it bottoms up." I've seen pictures of him playing a chromatic the right way up so, I don't know, but that's what Mr.Guy said.
In that book he also gives an account of how Walter died, told to him by Junior Wells who swore he saw it happen. It wasn't an ice pick."
I can't seem to find an online version of the book to corroborate, but that would be some fairly strong evidence.
Well regarding the photo in slaphappy's link, his album "best of little walter" is behind him on the wall and it's definitely mirrored so yeah this photo of him is definitely mirrored.
First, I noticed that Walter had his watch on his right wrist, when most photos showed him wearing the watch on his left wrist. Then, when I blew up the photo, I could see that the album covers on the wall behind him were also backwards.
I've seen another photo of Walter playing that had been reversed (with the wristwatch as a clue), and other versions of the same photo with the watch on the right wrist.
Layout artists reverse photos all the time for artistic reasons, so you can't take them as evidence on face value. =========== Winslow
Thanks Timeistight, I learned to play upside very wel because I was bored and thought I would try it. I have since lost much capacity due to underuse but I still have enough ability to excite a VERY attentive audience.
Personally I find my upside down tone to be superior to the right side up tone but cannot make the commitment to switching.
If anyone wants to get into it, all it really takes is the courage to do it and spend time with it. It begins making sense quickly.
