I have not posted and asked for critique like a lot of you. For one thing my sound system is terrible. The second thing is taping myself. I can play in front of 300..no problem, ..just cannot get the same mood and feel while taping.
The reason I want to hear it now is I have a set of harps and lessons coming soon from Chris and I know he will shoot straight with me. If I can break a bad habit or two before I start with him that leaves room for other stuff. I'm looking forward to the lessons almost as much as the harps.
I'm sure most of you have heard the backing track in the first one. The second is my son and I. Both of these are one take because that is all I get anywhere else I play.
I have not jammed with my son very much in the past two years (3 times). He recently moved his family back to the area so we hope to play more. He started in 05, a year before me. I had never heard this song and we just started playing. Anyone know it or who did it? At two minutes his low string goes flat, but he adapts nicely. I screwed the 1st position harp solo up at the same time. I'm getting better at foot percussion, but still not anywhere close to where I want to be.
Our last name is Frye so his friends call us Catfish Fryes...lol...Catfish Blues is the first song we learned.
I want us to get better, of course, but let me say that jammin with my son is one of the coolest things ever for me! One of lifes special highs!
As far as a critique, if anything, I would say that your intonation is pretty damn tight, no mean feat on the harp, but there is always room to improve.
I think it is super cool that your jamming with your son. I was pacing around and clapping time by 2:00 on that one with your son!
I just got back from a surprise birthday party for my dad that I helped his wife throw.
We all had a blast and he was super acknowledged throughout the night.
I had been playing the role of MC and after the champagne toast I cupped the crappy foam covered house mic and played him "Happy Birthday" in cross position. He loved it!.
I would love to bring my dad into the world of music and musicianship. Congratulations for having that with your son.
Enjoy the harps and instruction, many blessings on your road to the higher levels of harp mastery and making music! ---------- Shane
groyster and av8r....we'll be sure and meet at Hill country next time..Thanks for your kind words! Go VOLS!
Shanester, Sounds like you have a pretty good relationship with your dad. He could try some kind of percussion. I can hear a set of spoons jamming right along with your Chicken Stomp video. You never know who can sing either. I am lucky that I have something with my son that I never had with my dad. My son like blues like Son House, Blind Willie, all those great acoustic blues guys mixed in with roots and mountain music from our area in southern Appalachia. He calls what we play hillbilly gut-bucket blues...lol....if we could get grampa on the jug and the grandkids dancing we would have something. Thanks for your kind wishes!
Most of the time when I comment on playing..I get slaughtered by those who disagree. Disagree at will, because here I go again. 1. Beat is solid 2. D harp in second position for this key of A with a "buckdance" beat like this doesn't hit the button for me. I know, I know, John Lee Williamson owned the world doing that, but I think this groove is crying for 3rd position work with a G. I played along with you with a G in 3rd and burned this sucker up..you might try that out. 3. Going into first position with that other harp is always a killer move. Sounded very clean and organized, which is good in my book. Try distorting out that 9 hole blow and then the 3 hole draw in first and you might like that too. On an A that 3 hole draw will distort well. You can cop some good ideas from an early Junior Wells tune where he uses a D in first...called "Junior's Wail". Dont know if you can find it on the web, but its a great working tune for first pos. stuff. 4. Overall, you get rated with an 8 out of a possible 10 and I am one picky sob....nice job
@joelee about third position with a Gharp-is it not advantageous to play if the key was in Aminor?it just seems to me that in the key of A you are better off playing a Dharp in second-it seems you are more limited playing 3rd as opposed to 2nd especially with chord action
G harp in 3rd works great against Aminor or Amajor. Chords and octaves down on that low end give a strong backbeat....jumping from up there on a high octave and back down to the low draw chords. Take some of the licks from Bill Clark's "Blowing The Jewels", and simply transform them into octaves and you're really in business. ("Jewels" is in A and he uses a G in third) That's what I did when playing along with this gent on his video here. No question about it that if you're looking for that John Lee Williamson effect, second is the way to go here. But as in all this stuff, it's not chiseled in stone...you could jump from second to third to first and all stations in between...all over the place. Improvisation with those 3 positions can be a LOT of fun and will definitely keep the mind and the chops sharp. For foolishness and nonsense, I took 3 harps once, used JBWeld to affix them together at the ends. Then super glued old useless buttons from chromatic junk box to the ends...gave all the covers a coat of metallic model car paint and jumped 3 positions with that "big" harp. Drove the harp players batcrazy..."what is that thing" etc etc. (Much to my amusement). I lied about it being a "new one under development". (I did send the idea with photos to Hohner back when I was one of their road agent endorsees...they rejected it,of course) Regards, Me
I've never really thought of using 3rd much playing acoustic. I use it when I jam electric on songs like Summertime, House of the Rising Sun, and Thrill is Gone. I will surely give it a try. Got my curiosity.....Was 3rd position blues popular before electric harmonica? Any of the old Delta, Hill Country, or Piedmont acoustic use 3rd position very much? I really dig 5th shanester...lots of cool octave splits on the root and flat 3rd.
Nice mate! My ten year old boy is just gettin' his head around twelve bar (plays piano) and to see his face when those pennies drop is just priceless!......:~)
dude, my compliments. you are much further along at 4 years than i was at TWENTYfour years, no kidding. of course i was a slow learner, and too insecure and broke to seek out any sort of lessons, and back then there was no internet. you do some high end 2nd position in that first video i have yet to tackle. nice! let me echo what others have said, you have a feel for the song and your intonation is nice. i am not a technical player even after many years but i do like what i heard. in the second song 2nd position was ok but i agree with others who said that 3rd could be a real bonus on a song like that. i have been known to write stuff that required 1st 2nd and 3rd at one point or another in the same song, more as an exercise than something i would do out live. i have enough headaches getting keys right sometimes without added harps to keep track of! but yeah, Will Clarke has been such an inspiration for 3rd pos stuff, as well as Carey Bell and others. mostly once i got the idea, i just tried 3rd on a lot of stuff i'd previously done in 2nd. it's not always a fit but i use 3rd quite a bit these days. imho there are more possibilities by a long shot in 3rd, using octaves and single notes one can utilize all the notes from 1 to 10.
too cool that your son is into blues as well. you guys keep it up and get out on the street and to jams. my wife and i have a duo that i would not trade for love or money.
as for if 3rd was popular before electric blues, i don't know. what i DO know is, a chromatic harp in 3rd is a total natural. it follows that a diatonic in 3rd is a great tool to give more playing options as well.
Last Edited by on Sep 06, 2010 3:12 PM
@harpdude it impresses me that your son is into blind willie mctell-as great as robert johnson was he only recorded 29 songs before his infedility problem-I own 5 blind wiilie cds-some of the material is redone but differently-somebody has or is putting out a recording with blind willie material with harp on it
jbone Thanks for the compliments and advice. I must say that I have listened to very little of Clarke and Bell. I will dig in and find those examples. I have learned 1,2,3, and 5 positions on holes 1-10 and I am approaching 4,6, and 12 that same way. Some big names play high end even on the high E and F harps. Hard to make it sound fat, but I like it.
groyster....yes, my son loves Blind Willie, Mississippi John. Larry Johson, Robert Lockwwod. He was into blues before I ever picked up a harp.
I finally found the song we are doing in the vid below..."Four Women Blues" by Larry Johnson. When you guys hear this version, do you still feel 3rd position harp works best?
