Re: [Harp-L] When Did Fast Become Good?




When did we develop the mindset that playing at breakneck speed was the hallmark of a good player?

Like many of the professional harmonica players on this list, I can if I wish play at lightspeed. I developed that facility very young, as it was one of the things one might consider developing if you find you have the ability to do so.


It got me alot of my jobs when I was a teenager.

Playing very fast helped develop my abilities to play slow. My articulation really became professional after I developed incredible speed. I also got to know the high end of the harp really well and found loads of speed licks up there. Working at high speed with a fast metronome gave me very, very solid time, though I'd advise that working with a metronome at slow speeds is MUCH more important.

Since so many of my favorite musicians played fast ONLY when appropriate, I decided to find the places where it was appropriate for me.

I moved to Nashville in 1974 and learned quickly that playing fast would get me nothing. I wish I had learned that even faster because I blew some very choice opportunities that came up within a few months of arriving. Luckily, I was already getting sessions and the producers mainly wanted me to play like Charley McCoy, who they would have hired if he had been available. I never ever wanted to model my playing on anyone, but if someone was paying me I would've played like a duck. Learning Charley's approach was of course a fantastic experience, and it improved my playing and my hireability immensely. He can play as fast as anyone, but rarely does.

In my 30's I had a set of high speed practice licks that continued to help me develop my musicianship and my harpsmanship, but I never used them on gigs. Not playing fast became its own fetish. That continued into my 40's.

It was only when I hit 50 that it finally occurred to me that speed is nothing more nor less than one of the techniques we have to work with - why was I making such a big deal about it? I started devoting practice time to inventing new speed licks, and came up with bunches of them. When I slowed them down I had a bunch of new non-speed licks that I would have never come up with otherwise.

When I'm playing live and I get a solo I start very, very simply. Simple figures, repeated and varied, are the key to telling a story to an audience. I think the audience likes that best.

But audiences LOVE when I drop in a few bars, or alot of bars of high speed. Speed can take on real meaning if it's more like the spice in your show.

As lots of harplers can testify, speed can be a real crowd pleaser.

It's just damned annoying when it's all a harmonica player can do.

But if it's just one of many tools and techniques one has to tell a musical story with it's a completely legitimate.

The original question was 'when did speed become the standard of good harpsmanship.' I can tell you that it certainly was the standard that the people who were hiring me set when I started working back in the 60's. That was how I got work. But like I said, over-using it kept me from getting work in Nashville when I was starting out there.

So my vote: fast IS good musicianship as long as it's only one of your tools.

K





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