Re: [Harp-L] Run-Around Advice

[Mike Fugazzi <mfugazzi67@xxxxxxxxx>]

My band plays this song as well as Hook and Carolina Blues.  While I love Blues Traveler and have learned some parts of the solos note for note, I never play them that way.  Neither does John Popper.  You can search BT at archive.org and download a ton of Run-around from live shows over the last ten years.

Having never played any of those songs note for note, I know for a fact that even if you are kinda close or kinda up to his level of speed that it will go over well.  I personally like to start the opening line on 7 draw and not 8 draw based on his tendencies to do that live.  He also does a great lick to start the last solo (I think) most the time live that was never on the album.

Out of my sheer stubborness, I tend to play the BT songs with fewer notes, less speed, and more melody than JP.  I save the JP like solos for other songs.  I am difficult like that!

Play a lot on the upper octave using blow bends...don't play the draw five or nine unless it is  passing tone...reach for targe notes and play embellishments around them.  That is the key to what he does.  He actually comes up with some FANTASTIC melodies, but then he uses a lot of extra notes around them that kind of hide his best playing.  Jason Ricci will do that too, sometimes.  Very jazzy.
 Mike Fugazzi
Vocals/Harmonica
"The Mike Fugazzi Band"
http://www.myspace.com/mikefugazzi
http://www.youtube.com/user/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 




________________________________
From: mfugazzi67 <mfugazzi67@xxxxxxxxx>
To: mfugazzi67@xxxxxxxxx
Sent: Sunday, November 30, 2008 10:37:47 AM
Subject: Fwd: [Harp-L] Run-Around Advice

--- In harp-l-archives@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "Bill Hines" <billhines4@...>
wrote:

The band I occasionally play with wants me to do a new song in their
gig
next week - Blues Traveler's Run-Around. I've been working at this and
have it all down pretty well except that run in the big/middle solo. I
have the first part of that solo down, it's just when he blazes into
it
that I get lost (2:30 to about 2:46 time signature).  I finally found
a
copy of Winslow's transcription and that helps somewhat, but it's so
freaking fast that even Amazing Slow-Downer and Bend-O-Meter (my two
power tools for breaking down and learning recorded stuff) don't help
much.

So, any help for learning how to play this sort of thing, to get the
inflection and speed correct, would help. I have a hard week of
practice
ahead of me. My backup plan is to substitute something that fits and
is
playable for my skill level in that part (any suggestions - youtube,
mp3s of your ideas?). Of course we'll do a run through at
practice/sound
check earlier in the day before trying this in front of "real people".
It's just a charity gig so no biggie if it isn't perfect the first
time
though.

Also, I've been playing this pretty much straight up acoustic to learn
it and to practice this week will transition to using a mic and RP200
with Richard Hunter's patch set, which I will use for the gig. Any
suggestions as to which Hunter patch would be best for this, or what
effects would be appropriate for this particular tune?

Thanks a bunch in advance,

Bill
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