A have a question for fellow members here on the MBH forum.
I have been a long time harp player off and on for over 15 years. I would consider myself an intermediate player based on my skills and techniques. I understand basic music theory, at least enough to get by on the harp. I play mostly second position in Chicago style blues and mess around with gospel a bit.
I am a perfectionist that will sit down and learn a song from a recording and practice it until I can play it note for note. So if I play with a backing track I can play the harp parts fine. Ask me to improvise, and I am lost. Part of that could be lack of confidence and part of it could be that I do not know the musicality of the harmonica well enough.
I need to mention that I am an engineer and everything is my life needs to be structured and in order.
I have always wanted to play guitar or bass since I was young. I tried playing right handed guitars before and it never felt right.
I broke down and purchased a Squier Vintage Modified Jazz Bass '70s (made by Fender) left handed, off course. The minute I picked it up, it just felt natural playing it. It seems like the bass guitar has a more structured part in the song, keeping the rhythm with the drums.
My concern is what I should do about playing harmonica now.
Do I?
1. Practice both harmonica and bass.
2. Concentrate on the bass, move harmonica to the back burner.
I find that the bass is set up so the notes just make sense to me. I am actually excited about learning the different scales and increasing my music theory knowledge. It just makes more sense to me than it did with the diatonic harmonica, especially since I do not overblow.
I am not really interested in playing bass and harp together (with a rack).
If there are any combination harp and bass players out there that have any experience as to what I am going through, I would appreciate any input, good or bad.
Thanks, everyone.
Last Edited by Blind Melon on Jul 05, 2018 9:51 AM
Not a bass player here but I have 2 cents to give. The lore is, bass players get plenty of work. A bass line is integral to any combo operation and you're right, it locks the bottom with the drummer. Other hand- and I speak as a notorious improvisor rather than a technician on harp- I would not ever choose another instrument over harp. I tried a few different other instruments- guitar, keyboard, uke, autoharp, dulcimer, lots of percussion stuff, even washboard- but between dyslexia or adhd and just a general love for playing harp, I could never let it go. I sometimes envy those who can play more than one instrument but then again I can devote every minute of creative time- other than vocals- to harp.
You may want to focus on bass until you're proficient, but then maybe you'll want to get back with harp. A dual duty musician can be an asset for sure.
One of the coolest bass lines I ever heard was on Muddy Waters' King Bee. It changed the way I heard bass. It may have changed the way some bass players played even!
I don't see why you can't pursue both at the same time.
One way to look at this is to just discover where all the notes "live" on any instrument you may be drawn towards....once you really know where they all "live", the underlying idea of music is pretty much just understanding how music works.
Once you have this understanding, just pick up your instrument of choice, and since you know where the notes "live" on that instrument, simply play the instrument.
btw, as a duo, bass and harmonica are wonderful - plenty of sonic space between the two instruments. One will never get in the way of the other... ---------- The Iceman
Your penchant for learning harp note-for-note might lend itself to doing some rack mounted harp while you play bass. I can't say I've ever seen that & it would be really marketable.
The key to understanding why notes are where they are on harmonicas is to think about them as blows and draws and chords. They can seem weirdly laid out compared to other instruments but it's all about getting the notes to be where they need to be for chords for blowing and drawing. Instead of focusing on the individual notes for improvising focus on which cord they are in- whether you should be blowing or drawing. That will make most notes take care of themselves. You have to learn the exceptions and learn to trust yourself, but that's a matter of practice.
As for the bass, yeah, notes are laid out in a more chromatic way, which makes it easier to learn scales. Bass players still need to know their chords so they know what notes they can play at what time but they do a lot less playing of the whole chord all at once.
But when it comes right down to it, it all comes down to preference. You can work on them separately or in a rack or pick one over the other. Most of the people on this forum wouldn't give up the harmonica, but that's us. There is a structure to harmonica playing, but it's organized differently. You could spend some time on theory and sort that out, or go play bass. (At some point bass needs more advanced theory too). There are also other harmonica tunings you might explore that might make more sense to you. Ultimately though, it's about following your own bliss.
Get down with that bass! You won’t regret it. I’ve found that learning another instrument apart from harmonica not only expanded my musical knowledge, but refreshed my harp playing.
BM, I am in about the same boat. Bought a bass last summer and am really enjoying it. I think it has helped me with my harp playing because I listening more closely to the music structure. I probably practice bass about 70%...harp 30%. I can play a few songs on bass with my jam buddies but still mostly play harp at the jams. ---------- MBH member since 2009-03-24
My main instrument is bass i play in Church and covers . Then it fits i even play a solo on harmonica i rack while playing bass If you lern bass and mantain playing harmonica you se that they compliment
I've been playing bass for a little while. I'm told I need to use open strings less. I must think about that.
I would suggest that scales and arpeggios are the real backbone of bass playing, therefore structuring practice time specifically to learn them should be as easy as it is necessary.
(Some automatically swear by scales and arpeggios on any instrument, but I disagree - they crop up a lot in piano music, so you learn them. But in the classical guitar repertoire they really don't feature much, so I don't see the point in continuing them after you've learnt basic tone-production and stuff from them. Oh, and stamina - learning the series of Segovia scales is a good way to develop stamina when you are a beginner.)
Also scales are more patterned on bass and guitar than they are on piano, so it shouldn't take up a lot of your time.
Last Edited by Andrew on Jul 07, 2018 4:55 AM
At one point i sang, played harp, alto sax, flute, wrote songs, fronted the band, wrote horn lines cuz we had a tenor too, operated the PA, did all the booking etc. I kept my day job too. Play both. You would be far more valuable w/ 2 axes than one. It'll take work but it's fun work. Go for it. ---------- Reasonably priced Reed Replacement and tech support on Hand Made Series Hohner Diatonic Harmonicas.
'Making the world a better place, one harmonica at a time. Click MP for more info. Aloha Mark .
