Re: [Harp-L] Playing wicked fast



Wow, great advice, I'm always looking for new patterns to practice. I don't
play that fast when I play out, but it really helps to learn to phrase
things at different tempo.

One thing I do to build speed is to play a progression, be it 8 bar, 12
bar... whatever, all the way through with the same arpeggio pattern over
each chord. I usually play something like (1,3,5,7) on the first pass, then
(1,2,5,7), then (1,2,7,4), and so on. I concentrate on the 1,3,5, and 7, but
I also like to flex my 6, 9, 11, and 13 muscles also. This type of exercise
really helps me to put my created notes into context by forcing me to work
on precision and consistent tone throughout.

-Brandon

On 9/20/06, Michael Fugazzi <mfugazzi67@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I tend to be notey when I play, but I am not a speed demon. However, I got a few speedy lines I like to play. They are derived from scale patterns. Some are from Barrett's books, some are from Jazz Harp, and a couple come from music books.

You can take a scale and arrange all the notes in
patterns by 4th or 3rds.  You can also skip a note,
then come back to it, then move up one, etc.

Like Jason said, take a scale pattern or riff or scale
and start it at different intervals.  Popper does that
a lot (he uses the first pos. major four pattern in
just about every song).  I wish I had a harp handy to
tab one or two out, but Dave Barrett's book (the two
on scales), along with Richard Hunter's offer several.

Two common patterns are triplets based off of the
blues scale like 2 3'2 3' 4+ 3' 4+ 4' 4+, etc. and
variations of 4' 4 5 4 4' 3.

I can think of several players who know one or two
patterns really well and then use those as their
"homebase"  for phrasing.  As Jason said, there are
infinite variations, and knowing one or two really
well will get you a long way!

Learning your arppegios and basing patterns off of
that can be fun/easy too.  Then you can use those
patterns in different keys.  For example, a first
position major pattern would could sound hip in third
minor because of the extensions involved.  The first
position mixolydian scale actually works quite well in
several positions.

--- mfugazzi67 <mfugazzi67@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> --- In harp-l-archives@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, Jason Ricci
> <jason@...> wrote:
>
>  I know you said you were already working on the
> Blues scale and the
> pentatonic...but maybe you haven't tried starting
> your scale on the second
> note moving down to the 1st then move up to the 3rd
> move down to the 2nd
> then move up to the 4th scale degree move down to
> 3rd and on and on in tab
> it's like
> 3-draw(Bent a half step)-2 drw, 4 blow-3 drw, 4
> draw-4 blow, 5 draw-4
> draw,6
> blow 5 draw....then repeat this back wards moving
> down in the opposite
> format...You can star on the third note and move
> down three then the 6th
> note...or move up to the down three...This is a more
> infinite way of
> practicing for speed than licks cause it's almost
> mathematically
> impossible
> to run out of them...of course I suck at math ...I
> hope this makes since
> written out I just gave a couple of ex.s but there
> are so so many ways to
> these runs and they can move fast without taking you
> away from what your
> trying to say/whatever the chords are behind
> you...Their not riffs
> made with
> easy breathing patterns in other words but many of
> the patterns aren't all
> that hard just a spot here and there that makes for
> a good challenge.
> Hope that helps.
> Love
> Jason
>
>
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>


Mike Fugazzi vocals/harmonica

http://www.myspace.com/mikefugazzi
http://www.niterail.com

"Capitalize on your own strengths; develop your own style.
The world needs another harp player doing Little Walter licks
as much as it needs another Elvis impersonator."
-Paul deLay

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