Re: Get Me Going on the Blues

["Bob Maglinte" <bbqbob917@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

- ----- Original Message ----- 
From: <AV1901@xxxxxxx>
To: <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, August 25, 2003 10:14 AM
Subject: Re: Get Me Going on the Blues


>
> Barbeque Bob: Thanks for expounding on my earlier post in which I started
out
> by saying that learning blues on harp would involve form & *feel*
>
> Here's what I said:
>
> << Switching from traditional Irish to the blues on harp, given the
technical
>  > skills you already have, will probably involve listening to and
learning a
>  > musical form and *feel* more than anything else.
>  > >>
>
> Thanks for agreeing with me.
>
> Andy Vincnt

Hi Andy,
In nearly 30 years of pro playing experience, it ain't just harp players
that are clearly guilty of not paying enough attention to these things,
which in reality, are VERY subtle, but EXTREMELY important to understand as
well as to be able to perform. I've seen so many musicians who love to brag
at how easy it is to play blues, and they're usually the very LAST people to
understand the importance of all this. In conversations I've had with many
greats over the years, it is always something they constantly talk about,
and a quote I read somewhere from Sonny Boy II explains it in a nutshell
about the way the musicians played blues in England when he was on tour
there, "They play the blues so bad, but they play it so bad." I know he
surely wasn't saying the term "bad" meant good, as it is often referred to
today. It shows how many musicians, especially white musicians often do not
make the time and effort necessary to learn how to properly play the groove
and feel, and just sliong a bunch of notes together as fast as they can. The
full time studio session musicians generally have a FAR better understanding
of these things, and too often musicians who only play bars and jams snicker
at them, but if they had to deal with real session work, like I had to do on
the session for the move, "Fried Green Tomatoes," knowing what was involved,
they'd have a different understanding entirely. It seems that for a lot of
musicians, if it ain't smacking 'em upside the head with a 54 ounce baseball
bat, they usualloy won't get it.

Sincerely,
Barbeque Bob Maglinte
Boston, MA