Re: [Harp-L] Playing Country



Winslow did a good job of explaining it.  I would like to emphasize the word
"listen" and add to it "blend".  There are a lot of approaches to the music
coming from a variety of roots, so no one approach or rule applies other
than the audience expects even instrumentals and breaks to be somewhat
"singable" and have some recognizable melody here or there.  Wander too far
from the path already established and the music may suffer.

It is most helpful to be able to keep to a scale that blends with the
delivery of the music.  Knowing how to play in several positions can be very
helpful in this.  If the delivery is very blue, then play blue.  If the
delivery is very bright, play bright, not blue.  If the delivery swings,
make the music dance with some abandon without wandering too far from the
"path".  If the delivery is sweet, send the music as if you were an angel.
Listen and blend while still making your statement.

There are certain leads and fills that are particular to certain popular
tunes that may need to be learned in order to play as the audience expects.
However, many of those are more ideas than carved in stone, and the band may
be deliberately performing the piece in a different fashion anyway, removing
the need for the cliche' lines.  That gets you back to "listen" and "blend".

Cara

On 11/2/07, Winslow Yerxa <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> The answers are not clear cut. A lot of modern country sounds like
> rock&roll with some added twang and steel guitar, and sometimes borrows
> vocal melismas from black gospel music (Reba McEntire).
>
> Country has always borrowed from blues and from Tin Pan Alley and
> whatever else has been going on in American music (just listen to
> Jimmie Rodgers' old records from the 1930s). But it does have a
> background in major-key sacred singing and in modal fiddle tunes that
> originated in Scotland.
>
> If you're bridging from blues, I'd say:
>
> Listen. Some things fit and some don't. Just because you know it
> doesn't mean it works.
>
> There's a stronger tendency to sound melodic in country than in blues
> or rock, while drive, tension (like long bent notes or repeated riffs),
> and "disturbance texture" (whipping up a rhythmic froth), and hypnotic
> monotony are all more accepted in blues and rock than in country.
>
> Major scales are going to be more important in country than in Blues.
> Does this mean a wholesale shift to first-position diatonic? No.
> Country harp players have been using second position for a very long
> time, and Charlie McCoy has used it almost exclusively in his long
> Nashville career. But he played clean single notes, didn't do a lot of
> slurry bending, and avoided playing a lot of bent blue notes and Draw 5
> in second position when it didn't fit.
>
> Draw 5 in second position is a minor 7th, which sounds wrong in pure
> major scale contexts (but right in blues-flavored context and in modal
> tunes that use a lowered 7th). You can either avoid that note or play a
> harp with Draw 5 raised (the so-called country tuning, which can be
> purchased in Special 20 and maybe some other Hohner models).
>
> The major pentatonic scale, 1-2-3-5-6, is good to know in 1st, 2nd, 3rd
> and 12th positions. it will give you a lot of licks that work against
> country and country-related styles.
>
> Solos in country tend to be shorter than in blues or rock. It may be
> only half a verse or a couple of phrases. Watch and listen for the
> prevailing etiquette in any given situation.
>
> Winslow
>
> --- Mike Fugazzi <mfugazzi67@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> > So how is it different then blues?  Specifically, what kind of scales
> > would I work on?  What works for both?  What do you avoid?
> >
> > Mike Fugazzi
> > Harmonica/Vocals
> > http://www.myspace.com/mikefugazzi
> >
> >
> > "Music should be healing; music should uplift the soul; music should
> > inspire. There is no better way of getting closer to God, of rising
> > higher towards the spirit, of attaining spiritual perfection than
> > music, if only it is rightly understood."
> > -Hazrat Inayat Khan
> >
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