Brendan Power
111 posts
Dec 02, 2010
5:14 AM
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For those of you who don't know of him, Lee Sankey is a British harp player with a fabulous traditional tongue-blocking style. Dave Barrett was blown away by his huge acoustic tone and high-level tonguing technique at the recent NHL Bristol harmonica Festival - and Dave knows his onions when it comes to good tongue blocking!
Lee is also a very articulate and thoughtful man, who is currently writing what promises to be a fascinating book on how musicians perceive music in their minds eye when playing. He travelled to the USA recently and interviewed top harp players like Howard Levy, Joe Filisko etc as well as big-name jazz saxophonists and keyboardists for the book.
Lee had a successful career fronting his own band as a pro harp player but decided to concentrate on the business world instead, and currently works in a London IT company working up applications for big companies like Skype. That's why he drives a Porsche and has a pretty nice lifestyle :) But Lee hasn't given up on the harp - far from it, and he's recently been putting out some excellent instructional YouTube videos demonstrating classic blues harp techniques in a very clear manner, showcasing his awesome acoustic tone. These have been getting a lot of respect from other tongue-block players trying to get that great sound.
I love Lee's playing but we have very contrasting styles: I'm a lip-blocker, use alternate tunings, half-valve my harps and play mostly single-note stuff. So it was quite a surprise when I got an email from Lee ordering a couple of PowerBenders.
I imagined they might not suit his traditional chord-based style - but was I wrong!! Lee has taken to the PowerBender like a duck to water, and recently put out three videos showcasing his playing on the tuning. Lee is doing some wonderful new stuff with the PowerBender, including adapting his trademark tongue-switching and chording. With his different technique, he shows up some cool possibilities that I had never explored.
If you're a traditional tongue-blocker wondering about the PowerBender, his playing will resonate with you. Here are the videos:
GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO THE POWERBENDER
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpZxqIWeXmo
ORIGINAL TUNE WITH TONGUE SWITCHING ON POWERBENDER
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxXHs_ZCCWo
BLUES SHUFFLE IMPROVISATION ON POWERBENDER
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqvMxbV-yxs
For anyone who is wondering, Lee has done these videos totally off his own bat, and there is no cosy deal going on: he paid full price for his PowerBender harps.
Along with the likes of Alex Paclin, I'm proud and humbled that such great players are starting to adopt the PowerBender for their own playing. Here is the promo video if you want to check out its further possibilities:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNoxhd0EdLU
Brendan Power
WEBSITE: http://www.brendan-power.com
YOUTUBE: http://www.youtube.com/BrendanPowerMusic
Last Edited by on Dec 02, 2010 5:27 AM
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