Re: [Harp-L] Re: waves spewing from an instrument, real players

["Tim Moyer" <wmharps@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

M. N. wrote:
> 99.999% of the time, I wish I'd played FEWER notes. 

I think one syndrome a lot of harp players suffer from is feeling 
like they're only going to get 20 or 30 seconds to impress everyone, 
and trying to cram as much into that time as possible.  When I 
started playing with a jazz band and taking solos and fills in 
nearly every song, as well as playing heads and intros and outros, I 
started trying to play a lot less in each song.  

These days, I find myself sitting and listening a lot during songs.  
I started studying the way solo instruments were used in older jazz 
recordings, and usually it goes something like this: a solo 
instrument takes the head through a verse; vocals come in and the 
solo instrument disappears; if there's a second verse before the 
solo, a solo instrument might do fills; a solo instrument takes a 
solo verse, sometimes just to the bridge; vocals come back in, and 
the solo instrument does fills, continuing a theme established in 
the solo; head might repeat at the outro with a solo instrument, or 
a solo instrument might takes fills to the end.  

I know that sounds like a lot of playing, but it's important to 
remain sparse in the vocal areas, and I like to NOT play during at 
least the first verse.  There's going to be a lot of sitting while 
the vocalist establishes the lyric.  I love this time.  I listen to 
the bass player, the guitarist, the vocalist, and try to get into 
the mood of the song.  I'll snap my fingers or shake a shaker or 
something to maintain a "space" in the sound that I can slide back 
into.  When I do get my space I know how big it is and how long I 
have to fill it up.  I try not to play all my ideas in the first 
opportunity.  Believe me, it's hard to do a LOT of solos and remain 
fresh and not repeat yourself too much.  It's hard to fill all the 
time and not step on someone.  In any case, if you play less notes 
you play less bad notes and the good ones sound better.  

Joe Filisko once told me that harmonica players tend to spend all 
their time practicing their solos and improv skills, when that ends 
up being about 10% of what they do in a gig.  The 90% of their time 
that they play rhythm, chords, fills, vamps, whatever, they are 
unprepared for.  

-tim