[Harp-L] Blazing fast Country chops



Tony Wrote;

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Message: 5
Date: Sun, 28 Nov 2004 22:05:35 +1100
From: "tony" <tony@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [Harp-L] Blazing fast Country chops
To: <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
Message-ID: <000001c4d53a$317a3ad0$0402a8c0@handel>
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A couple of pointers for building speed for the fast country (and bluegrass)
playing.



It helps to eliminate unnecessary movement, both with the hands and head. If
you watch great blues guitarists, it seems that their hands are scarcely
moving. What's really happening is that they've figured out the most
efficient way to play the notes, and eliminated everything else. The same is
true with harmonica. For example, moving the bottom part of your jaw to
reach an adjacent note generally takes less effort than moving hands or
head. Brendan Power does this a lot: if you watch him play, his lower jaw is
moving constantly.



Also, it helps to know exactly how fast these guys are actually playing.
This is not hard to measure, all it needs is a watch with a second hand.
Details of this technique are at my site, at
http://www.harmonicatunes.com/How_fast.htm


Tony Eyers

Australia

Great point, Tony. I just played some fiddle tunes to see if I was doing
this myself, and damn, my lower jaw was shaking from side to side like
Elvis's hips! I just never realized it. Thanks for elucidating this.

Glenn Weiser
http://www.celticguitarmusic.com/harppage.htm







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