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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
Your top 3 or 5
Your top 3 or 5
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Mirco
613 posts
Sep 29, 2018
1:10 PM
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I have been playing harmonica about 5 years now, I guess. It's still early in my development. About five or six months ago, I decided I wanted to make a conscious effort to shape my playing over the long term. Every week, at least once a week, I go through the same few songs in an effort to make them a part of me, to get them into my musical DNA as part of my subconscious.
The songs I play every week are:
1) Juke
2) Off the Wall
3) Shakey's Shuffle (a Dave Barrett composition based upon Big Walter's playing)
By practicing the same few songs every week, over and over, I can really fine tune my performance and learn the nuances of each song. I think this is something that people are missing these days, because it is so easy to find new tabs and access new lessons. People are quick to move onto new material.
My question is: If you wanted to internalize 3-5 instrumentals in a deep way, what 3-5 would you pick? 3-5 instrumentals that you know SO well that you could play them, note for note, at any time? That would smoothly emerge from your subconscious while improvising?
I am currently playing the above three, but I think my actual list of five would be:
Off the Wall
Rocker
Blowing the Family Jewels
Here We Go (Dave Barrett, tramp groove)
Shakey's Shuffle
It gives me influences from Big Walter and Little Walter. There's a mix of grooves, with shuffle, swing, and straight eighths. Mostly 2nd position but that one song in 3rd. Juke is in my current list, but more out of necessity than anything else. I think Off the Wall and Rocker are both superior, but everyone expects a guy to know Juke.
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Marc Graci
YouTube Channel
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jbone
2709 posts
Sep 29, 2018
1:38 PM
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I began really "getting" harp about 20 years ago. Jolene and I have been partners for well over a decade. We try and add songs often but there are some we really like and play out a lot. Keys are harp and position I use.
My Babe Little Walter D 3rd
Love in Vain- RJ ala Jagger/Richards Low F 3rd
Bring it on Home to You SBII A 2nd
You Down the Road Original F 2nd
Corner of Love and Hate Original Low D 3rd
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Music and travel destroy prejudice.
Reverbnation
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jbone
2710 posts
Sep 29, 2018
1:39 PM
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Last Edited by jbone on Sep 30, 2018 8:39 AM
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nacoran
9975 posts
Sep 29, 2018
3:46 PM
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I mostly play my own tunes. I can play the head of a fair number of classics but the only song I've ever sat down and learned someone else's version of end to end is Hakan's cover of Rock Around the Clock. It just has great energy.
The two tunes that really hit me that way are the minor solo from the end of Jason's song 'The Way I Hurt Myself' and Cotton's 'Slow Blues Angel of Mercy/Blues in My Sleep'. When I ran across them first they were so far beyond my playing level that I didn't even think of trying to learn parts of them. I'm still not sure I could do them justice, even in part, but I should probably be working on them as part of the learning process.
I've got two or three originals that I riff on a lot too, always trying to figure out new variations. I haven't been playing with a band for a while though, so I've been trying to extend them a bit so they will work as stand alones.
I've also wanted to do a version of Bach's Little Fugue since forever. I can do the main theme but it does a lot of tricky things like inverting the melody and doing rounds. It would involve doing a lot of fancy tongue blocking, playing two parts at once. I've never been able to deconstruct songs that way although I do it a little bit on a couple originals. My brain, I guess, can create chordal music but can't listen well enough for chords to be able to work them out.
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Nate
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Rgsccr
495 posts
Sep 29, 2018
10:52 PM
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In the morning I play through the songs below -some of them are part of my band's regular group of songs. I don't always play each song all the way through - sometimes just the head. I also spend some time on the first, second and third position blues scales. At night I will again play something by Sonny II like My Younger Days or Born Blind, and then work on new songs our band might be thinking of playing.
1. Help Me and always at least one more by Sonny Boy II, usually Checkin' Up On My Baby
2. Champagne and Reefer
3. Born in Chicago
4. One song by Paul deLay
5. Further on Down the Road
6. Shakin' Hands with the Blues - Piazza
7. Cissy Strut
8. San Ho Zay
9. Rollin' and Tumblin - Baby Face Leroy
10. Juke
11. Sonny Boy I's 1000 Dollar Bill
12. Ridin in the Moonlight - Fabulous Thunderbirds
I should add that I have by no means mastered all of these songs (or, probably, any of them), but I am definitely getting better at each and the various techniques used.
Last Edited by Rgsccr on Sep 29, 2018 11:38 PM
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John M G
254 posts
Sep 30, 2018
3:47 AM
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These are my regulars but I'm trying to add to the list all the time. I'm working on Mighty Long Time SB ii and Easy Walter Horton for the folk club night.
These are my go to numbers
1. Last Night, Carey Bell version
2. Country Girl, Walter Horton & Ronnie Earl
3. Someday Baby, The Blues Band version
4. I'm Ready, Muddy Waters
5. Scratch My Back, Johnny Woods
6. Trouble in Mind, Walter Horton
7. Careless Love, Walter Horton/Lonnie Johnson
8. I Don't Care No More, SB II
9. Who's Been Talking, Howlin' Wolf
10. Route 66
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Spderyak
236 posts
Sep 30, 2018
4:26 AM
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Let's see 3 to 5 songs would be
MacK the Knife
All that Jazz
Summertime
St Louis Blues
Sailors hornpipe
mostly we try to keep about 30 songs active for gigs
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Silvertone
176 posts
Sep 30, 2018
7:00 AM
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Steady, Jerry McCain
Just Wailin, Louis Meyers
Blue Mambo, Steve Guyger
Snake oil, Steve Guyger
Blowin the Family Jewels, William Clarke
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BronzeWailer
2068 posts
Sep 30, 2018
3:26 PM
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Gettin' Out of Town
Trouble So Hard
Grinning in Your Face
Shortnin' Bread
Wish I was in Heaven Sittin' Down
BronzeWailer's YouTube
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BnT
201 posts
Oct 01, 2018
12:34 AM
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Marc,
I think you have a good, long term plan and concur that internalizing as you suggest helps soloists build a riff repertoire to draw from. I also agree that lots of players are "quick to move on to other material" rather than fine tuning the prior tune du jour. There's an old adage about the best cover bands spending 90% of their time perfecting the last 10% of a song. That 10% can be the difference between a unique song and a generic blues.
I admit, I don't practice. Instrumentals like "Back Track", "Juke", "the Work Song", "Walter's Boogie", "Red Top", etc. were internalized long ago. And these days I play mostly originals and not many instrumentals.
If I'm going to practice instumentals I might do:
~ "Take Five"
~ "Things Ain't What They Used To Be"
~ "Boogie do Caue" by Flavio Guimarães
~ "Dexter Ducks Out" - an original 2-5-1 medium blues; the title, a play on words from "Lester Leaps In"; incorporating the heads from standards like "Tenor Madness", "Red Top", "Jumpin With Symphony Sid", "A-Train", "C-Jam Blues" and a couple more.
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BnT
Last Edited by BnT on Oct 01, 2018 12:14 PM
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