[Harp-L] Re: Breaking patterns- Sonny's Remarks

["samblancato" <samblancato@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Sonny,

 

I read your remarks on breaking away from patterns with interest.  It sounds
like you were using a strategy that I'm employing right now and you describe
it very well. 

 

What I'm doing right now is this:  I have patterns that I use for the I, the
IV, and the V and then several I use to transition between these cords. (I
have *a lot* of patterns so I play with great variety but it still gets
stale.) What I try to do is take the patterns and swap out where I would
normally use them.  So a figure I might use on the I, I'll use on the IV or
V. But that figure will now, of course, need to be reshaped so that it makes
musical sense in that new passage.  This, I feel, forces me to get creative
and the beauty part is that I can often work this stuff out with out even
playing the harp; I can often do it in my head throughout the day while
tooling around and working and all. Ninety percent of what I play is stuff
I've borrowed from LW, BW, Kim Wilson, Piazza, Steve Geiger,etc.  If I just
played their solos wholesale it wouldn't be any fun and it wouldn't be
honest either.  But if I can do the work of reshaping what I use for a
different purpose, in a different place I feel like I've made something mine
in as much as any of the stuff can be said to belong to anyone.  In a way
this strategy for breaking patterns is really just a way of finding and
using new patterns.  

 

Of course there are other issues that help here too.  What are you trying to
do?  Are you trying to build dramatic tension or mellow-out.  Here's an
example of what I mean:  On Kim Wilson's song "Low Down" from his That's
Life CD he takes that last 12 bars swinging hard on this shuffle as he heads
for the finish V.  You can play the I and IV passage in a very relaxed and
lazy way to fit that kind of figure into a different grove.  That accents
have to change and the attack becomes different; you can insert your own
noodles and viola, you've got something really cool that you can use for a
very different purpose. 

 

About Little Walter you wrote:

 

"If you are Little Walter fans, get that Neglected Masters double CD,
many are at a time I can feel that Walter just started playing amplified and
he
was getting a woody with this new innovation. You can tell by how he hits
the
notes and his phrasing from when he recorded off mic in late 40's. His right
on bent notes are the staple of his style. One of these Mornings is a great
third position song to learn, he is playing acoustically so you can hear
every note.

 

I totally agree with you on this.  I don't know if this is exactly what
you're talking about be I feel that "Boogie" is just all about the pure joy
of playing super distorted/amplified with all his broad swoops and
glissandos.  And yeah "One of These Mornings" is a great 3rd position song
to learn for controlling the 2 draw bends. 

 

Question:  On that Mitch Kashmar riff you tabbed out (which is very nice
btw), are you jumping the 5 hole, or tongue switching or what?  

 

Sam Blancato, Pittsburgh