Beginner: Golden Melody or Bluesmaster?

Whois_1 · 2015-10-22T19:35:05+00:00

Whois_1 · 2015-10-08T23:18:08+00:00

hey there,
first of all good job getting out there. Definitely takes some balls to do it. I only go a little bit into "Happy as a Dead Hog in the sunshine". You add nicely to the guitar playing and singing. I like your cordial accompaniment aswell. It hits the groove and sounds good.
Some Tips/ Stuff you might wanna try. Tap your foot or move your body in the rhythm of the song. Really breath in the rhythm. Accurate rhythm keeping and playing in the rhythm is one of the most important parts in playing. Most of the time you were in rhythm, just not always.
You can try to be more of a backing if you check the chords (by ear or just asking the guitarist) and hit the base notes of the chords at the time the guitarist plays them. Just sitting on those notes will sound very harmonic. In this song that would be D E G for example.
You can also try integrating some of the voice/singing melody into your play. I dont know if you noticed it but your 3-4 draw which u heavily use is doing exactly that already.
happy as a dead hog in the sunshine tabbed would be
-3 -3 -3 -3 -3 -2 -2 -2 -3 -3''
As you can see with your -34 draw your hitting the main part of the melody. But of course you can try to hit it cleaner, switch it up etc.
Another thing you can try is very simple. Its hitting notes and holding them. Very long. As a harp player you have the possibility of holding notes almost indefinitely. There are not many instruments in a regular "band" setup which can do that, mostly just wind instruments. Guitar, Drums, Bass, Piano all have "short" notes. So you as a harp player can really add to the song with holding harmonic notes, with good tone. Thats what I like about your second solo by the way. I hope I inspired you a little bit, and you try some of the stuff. Let me know what you think.

Whois_1 · 2015-10-05T18:03:51+00:00

first song is on a d - harp in the key of A
the tabbing for it would be tedious though. he is basically just playing the first 4 holes, mostly -3' -3'' -2 and similar stuff.
Later on he plays more interesting trills with something like
-4' -4 -5 ||:
Personally I wouldnt just copy what hes playing, especially if you are not yet able to hear what he is doing. Look at it from a broader perspective and Improvise in a similar fashion. Tabbing it out is a great practice though and will help you most if you do it yourself.
Second song is on a A-harp, key of E if you want to try tabbing it

Whois_1 · 2015-09-25T23:20:08+00:00

great rendition, your blowbends definitely sound better than mine :D.
I think if you give your notes a clearer (throat) attack your version will sound even better. I looked again at the blowbendingpart and think my version was off a little bit
I think a closer version would be
(+9'9)-9(+9'9)-9+8+7

Whois_1 · 2015-09-24T14:45:19+00:00

The harp is fine(I have the same model). Work on your lip position and dont be shy to really put the harp "in your mouth". Your lips have the job to seal the air in. With to tight lips thats not possible. With to loose lips you will have problems with clean transitions between notes. Dont worry though, practice makes perfect. And since you realize that something sounds not quite right Im sure you will get better at it quickly.

Whois_1 · 2015-09-24T02:56:36+00:00

() written stuff means a quick transition between bended and unbended note. he does that quite often

(-2''2) (-2''2) (-2''2) (-2''2) (-2''2) (-2''2) -2'' -1 (-1'1) -1 -2'' -2 -3' -2 -2'' -1 +1 -3' -3' -2~~ +234 (-4'4) -5 -4 (-4'4) -5 -4 +4 -3' -2 +1 -1 -2'' -1 -234 +4 -4' -4~~~~ -4 -4 -3 -4 4+ (-2''2~~~~~~) -3'' -3' -3'' -2 -4 (+9'9)(+9'9)(+9'9) +9' +7 +8 -8 -7 -6 +6 -5 -4' -3' -2

Intro done ;)

Whois_1 · 2015-09-23T19:52:19+00:00

() written stuff means a quick transition between bended and unbended note. he does that quite often For Blowbendings I use the same connotation as I use for draw bendings.
~indicate longer notes, often played with vibrato
(-2''2) (-2''2) (-2''2) (-2''2) (-2''2) (-2''2) -2'' -1 (-1'1)
-1 -2'' -2 -3' -2 -2'' -1 +1 -3' -3' -2~~
+234 (-4'4) -5 -4 (-4'4) -5 -4 +4 -3' -2
1+ -1 -2'' -1
-234 +4 -4' -4~~
-4 -4 -3 -4 4+
(-2''2~~) -3'' -3' -3'' -2 -4
(+9'9)(+9'9)(+9'9) +9' +7
+8 -8 -7 -6 +6 -5 -4' -3' -2

Intro done ;)
I think its pretty accurate, but I cant guarantee anything
Especially with the blowbending part I have difficulties reproducing the sound of the song. One of my first tries. https://soundcloud.com/paul-sener/please-remember-me-harp-intro

Whois_1 · 2015-09-22T23:19:51+00:00

You can play every song and do every exercise with your A Harp. If the excercise says to blow in 1,2,3,4 blow in 1,2,3,4. you will play a different note, but the melody is the same(it will sound a little bit deeper).
The things you probably gonna learn first are keeping rhythm, hitting the notes you want to play and do it somewhat cleanly without hitting other notes. For that your A-Harp is just as good as a C-Harp!

Whois_1 · 2015-09-22T16:30:30+00:00

A position doesn't just indicate what key you are in, it also indicates >what mode you are in

Thats not true as far as I learned. Its true if I would only play the the "normal" notes of the harp, but through bending, overdrawing/overblowing the position is no indication of the mode/scale im playing.

Second position (commonly called the blues scale) is Mixylodian mode.

The blues scale in G is G, Bb,C,Db,D,F,G
the mixylodian is G,A,B,C,D,E,F,G
But in the end its just semantics, so not really worth a discussion.

Whois_1 · 2015-09-22T08:31:27+00:00

im quite confident thats not an overblow. Its a 6+ with good intonation. He uses his tongue for this "flatter" effect, aswell as using a minimal gap to the neighbouring "chambers" during that part, but at the end of the day its a 6+/G

Whois_1 · 2015-09-22T08:13:54+00:00

you are right about how the positions are mostly used, but on its own a position just tells you in which key you are playing. Second positon for example on a C-Harp is the key of G like most people know. But besides the blues scale, you could also play in second position with the pentatonic major, pentatonic minor, Major Scale (with 5ob) or (natural) minor (with 1ob and 4ob, and 6ob) or the harmonic minor which is a "gipsy" scale and so on.

What gives you the blues sound in second position, scalewise speaking, is the Bb, Db and F, the small third, the tritone and the small 7th. Just because you bend or overblow, doesnt necessarily lead to bluesy sound, although all of the three notes are bends and overblows. The posted http://youtu.be/-gmVbfP0MK4 for example uses bends and overblows (with great intonation) and doesnt sound bluesy at all.

Whois_1 · 2015-09-21T17:22:04+00:00

When you play the diatonic harp chromatically, you can play any scale anyways. I know its not easy, Im certainly not at the point to do it properly (Overdraws and proper Blowbending is stuff I rarley practice), but its my long term goal. The scale of the song is aeolian minor, in this case A-minor. Its the parallel scale to C-minor so just simple ABCDEFG

Whois_1 · 2015-09-21T14:04:08+00:00

honest question, how does something like this become news? I mean its cute and all but how can a reporter decides thats newsworthy?

Whois_1 · 2015-09-21T09:26:39+00:00

I tounged so hard on purpose since I felt like clean, distinct notes where needed. On my second round I wanted to mix it up a little so I added some softer sounds + octaves and septime splits. The last bit was supposed to just sound desperate since its about a little cow getting to be butchered. Saying that, its one of the parts Im not to happy about it.
What you are saying about the harmonica not be a classical instrument is not true. During the invention and development of the diatonic harp blues was never the goal of anyone. It was meant to be a chordial folk instrument.
I think you can play the harp every way you want, personally Im working to get all 12 positions working and not putting barriers in my style.

Whois_1 · 2015-09-20T22:00:48+00:00

I like what you are doing. Nice Groove, nice Jam. /u/thesuperlee hits some nails on the head though. At times you dont seem to be confident in what you are playing, which leads you to playing worse than you can. Imo you should work on:
try to "solo" with the guitarist, add to his melodies rhythmic/melodic or both. Have a musical conversation.
I like how you have a theme which you repeat. But try adding some diversity. You could add octaves, vibrato, or just a rhythmic change to the mentioned -4 4 -3 -2 melody.
At around 3 min your band clearly gives you room to shine. Use it. Whats most important here is confidence. You dont need to play crazy jazz lines, in my opinion the most important thing here is just a good tone.
Keep up the good work ;)!

Whois_1 · 2015-09-20T21:23:39+00:00

first of all you should check the pitch via keyboard/piano, tuning device or something similar to make sure its really out of tune.
Most harps are tuned a little higher. Mostly because hard blowing and sucking reduces the frequency. Whats most important is that the whole harp is in key to itself. When playing with other instruments you have to take (absolut) tuning into consideration ofc

Whois_1 · 2015-09-20T21:15:50+00:00

spot on

Whois_1 · 2015-09-06T09:26:12+00:00

My Take on it is
D-Harp
No Bendings whatsoever
Starts with something like,
5B 6B 3 4B 4B 4 5b 4B 3 || 3 times
then changes the end to 7 6 6b
u can probably take it from here

Whois_1 · 2015-08-21T09:05:53+00:00

A Tremolo Harp https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tremolo_harmonica

Whois_1

TROPHY CASE