[Harp-L] Jazz players....

[Hendrikmeurkens@xxxxxxx]

Hi, Everybody

Here a few thoughts from a Jazz harmonica player. I recently joined the list 
to
inform myself about the doings of my fellow harmonica players (sorry, I can't 
use the
term 'harpers'; those are the guys with the harp, a point that I am trying to 
make
everytime a sound engineer promises me to make my 'harp' sound like a real 
'harp'). 

Anyway, here is how I got to where I am on the instrument.
I consider myself a Jazz musician who happens to play harmonica. I could also 
play
saxophone, piano, guitar or anything else. My lines wouldn't be much 
different. I hear 
something and try to get it out of the instrument, no matter if it is 
supposed to be 
possible on the harmonica or not. That is my problem!
I started playing Jazz harmonica at age 19 after hearing, who, yes ,you 
guessed right,
after hearing the master himself, Mr. Jean Baptiste Toots Thielemans play. He 
inspired
me to pick the harmonica as my Jazz instrument. Because it was always about 
Jazz for 
me.
But as far a what to play I never really listened to Toots. He made me pick 
up the instrument
but after that I was already somewhere else. I transcribed Charlie Parker, 
Hank Mobley, Dexter
Gordon and a ton of other straight ahead players. Mostly saxophonists and 
pianists. Why 
those guys? Don't know, I liked their lines.
I went to Berklee and there they made theoretical sense out of what I figured 
out on my
own. Berklee was good, but the knowledge and the feel comes from 
transcribing. There
is no way around it.
My point? What's in your brain will come out on the intrument eventually. But 
first it has
to get into your brain. You have to study the music you want to master and be 
able to
explain to yourself   what you want to play at any given moment. If you know 
the notes
they will come out (after, yes,unfortunately, a lot of practise). But you 
have to have an
idea of what it should sound like. Listening to your style of choice (I am 
sure classical
master player Rober Bonfiglio listens to classical music) and understanding 
the theory
of what you are striving for are the two sides from which to approach that.
Actually I should get off the net and practise.

Best,

Hendrik