[Harp-L] Summertime (newbie perspective)

["Seth Galitzer" <sethgali@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi folks,

I've just recently in the last few months picked up the harp and just
in the last couple of weeks started lurking on this list.  I've gotta
say it's a lot of fun listening to people (talk and play).  I'm in the
mode right now where I'm just listening to as much as I can and
woodshedding up enough skill to get on the stage.  I'm coming into
this as a sax player, so my perspective may be a bit different than
most.

I've been playing sax (mostly tenor) for 18ish years now.  I'm
probably one of the few sax guys who doesn't like the hard boppers,
like Bird or Coltrane.  I appreciate the technical skill, but I prefer
the classic, smoky tenor players: Dexter Gordon, Ben Webster, Stan
Getz, Scott Hamilton, etc.  Paul Desmond and Cannonball Adderly are
just about the only alto players I like to listen to (maybe some Sonny
Stitt).  Of course, nobody beats Gerry Mulligan on bari.  Lately, I've
been listening to a lot of Sonny Rollins (gotta learn his version of
Tennessee Waltz) and absolutely loving it.  I also listened to a lot
of 50's pop rock in junior high and "classic rock" in high school, so
that also colors my playing.

I've found the discussion on technique vs. feeling very illuminating.
I'm very much in the "feeling" end of the spectrum.  I've seen lots of
players come out of school and have lots of chops, but no soul.  I
certainly appreciate the skill involved with highly technical playing
of any instrument.  My favorite thing is to watch really excellent
guitar players just go at it and look like they're not even trying.
But for me, if the playing doesn't have guts, you could play all the
notes in the world and I could really care less.  That's why I really
like Rollins right now and have never liked Coltrane.  This is why the
blues "speaks" to me.  It's got guts.

For the last two-and-a-half years, I've been singing lead and playing
tenor in a 7-piece electric blues/rock band (think 60s-70s era UK
blues bands with a dash of Chicago-style and you'll be pretty close).
Just recently, I've started doing some more acoustic, classic blues
just with another guitar player.  That's when I picked up the harp.
Right away, I knew it was going to be a challenge, but a fun one.

The first thing that struck me was the complexity.  Harp looks so
easy, right?  I mean, with the sax, you have your embochure and breath
supports, and then the fingerings.  It's all soooooo much harder than
anything else.  Harp is just suck/blow, right?  And it's all in one
key so you don't even have to learn scales, pssht, no problem.  I'd
call it "deceptively easy".

When I play the harp, I have to completely reset my brain.  I'm just
starting, so I'm doing crossharp on diatonic, nothing fancy just yet.
So the instinct to take a deep breath before starting a phrase is
completely out the window.  Keeping track of where the heck I am on
the instrument is still a challenge.  I find myself frequently moving
too far up or down the instrument.  I also tend to overthink things,
such as where I am in the scale in relation to the instrument, and am
working on trying to go more by instinct.  Some day I may be able to
block properly.  Etc., etc., etc.  The more I learn I don't know, the
more blown away I am by great harp players.

The harp player in my other band is really exceptional and I've been
getting some great tips from him, so I do have my own local "guru" to
look to.  Other than that, I spend a lot of time listening to other
harp players, and just playing CDs and trying to hack stuff out with
those.I was school-taught on the sax, so I'm trying to go self-taught
(old-school-taught?) on the harp.  I suppose you could call me a HIT:
Harper(ist?) In Training.

Anyway, sorry for the long-winded post.  I'm in the
wide-eyed-wow-isn't-this-all-so-awesome-phase and wanted to jump into
the list here.  I'm looking forward to hearing what you folks are
doing on this list and hope to someday be able to contribute, other
than "how the heck to you do that?"  Oh yeah, to add to the list of
versions of Summertime, here's my favorite (next to Janis, of course):
http://www.last.fm/music/Stan+Getz/_/Summertime
And just for fun:
http://www.last.fm/music/Sonny+Rollins/_/Tennessee+Waltz

Thanks again for the great discussions.  I'll be seeing you around.
Seth Galitzer

-- 
The beatings will continue until morale has improved.