Get me going on the blues

["Stephen Shaw" <moorcot@xxxxxxx>]

I have been playing diatonic harp for 10 years or more, mostly in Irish 
traditional music.  Suppose - JUST SUPPOSE - I wanted to branch out into 
blues playing.  How would I get started?  If you feel like answering read 
the following first   #;-)

(1) There are to my knowledge no blues jams/sessions within easy reach (I 
live in the middle of nowhere in a rural part of the UK), so learning by 
going to these is not really an option.

(2) I am not used to learning from instruction manuals etc.  I think (but am 
not sure) that I need a few seminal-type recordings to listen to and play 
along with/imitate (at least to begin with).

(3) I am already proficient in the following:  clean single-note playing;  
bending low-draw and high-blow notes;  1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th (a bit) and 12th 
position playing (though I spend most of my time in 1st position).  I can 
also impress my more gullible friends with those funny flutters you can do 
with adjacent draw notes, and can make bluesy if amateurish sounds using my 
hands/embouchure.

(4) I am very un-proficient in the following:  chromatic harp (though I do 
possess one or two such instruments);  reading music (I can struggle but 
hell's teeth why should I at my age!).

(5) I understand the importance of cultivating good acoustic tone 
unamplified, but am used to playing amplified too.

Now I know there are at least one or two blues players out there.....

Steve Shaw.


Want more than the blues?  Try Irish! ..........OR VICE VERSA!
http://mysite.freeserve.com/trad_irish_harmonica

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