Hi Guys, In spirit of peace and knowledge sharing I have recorded this video about developing agility on harmonica. Enjoy and please give me your feedback/critique/suggestions.
I think it's a good idea to play that kind of stuff to build technique. Unfortunately the quality of bends and overblows with just about 99% of 10 hole players makes it difficult for it to be a classical instrument. I told basicly the same thing to Crytal.
The need for exercises is huge for all harmonicas. My feeling is that just tablature without notation keeps the instrument in the "not serious category" in the world of professional musicians. ---------- Emile "Diggs" D'Amico a Legend In His Own Mind How you doin'
great stuff. Regarding notes/tabs - I would do it this way: since there are repeating/similar parts, I would tab out the first part, pronouncing notes and holes, and the rest will be just NOTES ("A flat", "C" etc.) with a playing example. This would also force the learner to develop hearing and learn to navigate across bends note-wise. ---------- Free Harp Learning Center
Jim then you will not develop reading skills. What if it hasn't been played correctly. Robert Bonfiglio I trust everybody else pays cash. Charlie McCoy has great Material with notes and tabliture. Ear traing is an important technique but technical exercises I think are better written out in some form. My God look at all of the Etude books for other instruments. ---------- Emile "Diggs" D'Amico a Legend In His Own Mind How you doin'
Thanks, for the video/demonstration. I'll have to wait till the weekend to try to write down all the notes you're playing.
I definitely prefer sheet music to tab. What if I want to play on a different key harmonica or on chromatic or I want to show another musician what it is I'm playing? Then that original tab is useless. Was there a tab attached with this video? I did not see it but it would have been very helpful to have in the description box along with the video. Your playing & demonstration of the exercise and music was very nice. I've been messing around with Bach stuff on harmonica sometimes, very challenging :) .
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~Ryan
"I play the harmonica. The only way I can play is if I get my car going really fast, and stick it out the window." - Stephen Wright
Pennsylvania - H.A.R.P. (Harmonica Association 'Round Philly)
I think it is hard to work from sheet music playing a diatonic. Since there are 12 keys of Richter tuned harmonicas there are 12 note layouts and it is very challenging to associate a particular note on the staff with a particular hole (or hole and bend) because those will change depending on what key harp you happen to be using--and it is sometimes necessary to use more than one harp to play a piece of written music, especially if one does not OB.
If I've got to work from a chart, i usually cheat and simply convert the notes to degrees of the scale. i know what hole and which bend correspond to which degree of the scale in the 5 positions i regularly use, and those relationships remain the same in all 12 keys. But to do it any other way on a diatonic would be very difficult for me because of the 12 different note layouts on the 12 different keys of harmonica.
I don't play chrom well enough to perform on one, but it seems to me it would be much easier to sight read playing a chrom.
I hate trasposing and what is why play everything on C harp, sometimes if I play from music sheet written for brass section I pick either Ab or Bb harp but the idea is the same.
@Leonid; That's fine if you are playing solo. But most of the time if i am working from charts, i am playing with other musicians and so i cannot pick and choose what keys the material is played in. i have to play the music in whatever key(s) the band is supposed to be playing in.
I'm not required to work from charts very often, but when i am i can't pick the key we'll be in. and the performance will usually involve different tunes in different keys and some of the tunes may modulate.
@RyanMortos: "They aren't really different though right?
All that changes is what note the harmonica starts on, then you follow what note comes next in the major scale."
This is what I'm saying: I certainly agree that the BREATH PATTERNS don't change, but the location of particular NOTES do change. And it is particular NOTES that are written on the staff. For example, C is in a different location on each of the 12 harps. If you see a C on the sheet music, what hole do you play (and do you have to bend)? the answer will be different for each of the 12 harps, depending on which harp you are playing.
Degrees of the scale only change depending on which POSITION you are in, so, yeah, the minor pentatonic scale in second position is in the same place on every Richter tuned 10 hole harp. that's why i cheat and convert the notes on the sheet music to degree of the scale.
hvyj, I am sorry I misunderstood you. I think that the breath patterns don't change is one of the cooler facts on our chosen instrument :O) . I don't quite know how to use scale degrees like you but it sounds like cool useful stuff I hope to grasp in the future.
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~Ryan
"I play the harmonica. The only way I can play is if I get my car going really fast, and stick it out the window." - Stephen Wright
Pennsylvania - H.A.R.P. (Harmonica Association 'Round Philly)
@Leonid: You know, it just dawned on me that if a tune is in A minor you shouldn't have to transpose it in order to play it on a C harp since C and A minor have the same key signature and, of course, you can play in A minor on a C harp (4th position). FWIW.
Robert Bonfiglio told me he thought writing everything for a C harmonica and just changing the clef was the way to go to avoid transposition for the 10 hole. I've never worked out the details. Transposing from sheet music in all 12 keys would be tough. ---------- Emile "Diggs" D'Amico a Legend In His Own Mind How you doin'
Great job Leonid! I have worked my way through few classical pieces and it is really rewarding many ways. First of all it is great to learn great music, secondly the development of ear and musical understanding of scales while trying to find out what the notes are, and thirdly of course the technique that is needed to be able to play it.
I don't personally care whether the bends are really accurate or not - if it sounds good to my own ears then it's good.
Thanks Guys, as I said it is an excersise. I tried to be as accurate as possible with bends even checked them with tuner. Unfortunately from time to time I do get it off slightly. But hey I am not the only one and even most advanced players do it occasionally
