RE: [Harp-L] learning to sing

["Steve Shaw" <moorcot@xxxxxxx>]

> James Harman once told my friend (then, later, me too) that learning to 
> sing was the single >greatest thing you can do to improve your harmonica 
> playing.

> DG

This will interest about 0.0001% of the list, but it's a fact.  Most Irish 
slow airs have no discernible rhythm and are sometimes even notated without 
a time signature.  But the majority are derived from song tunes, mostly from 
songs of a more reflective nature.  If you know the words to the song and 
can visualise them as you're playing the tune on a harmonica, you play the 
tune so much more convincingly.  That fast stuff, the jigs and reels, is 
much easier: good slow air playing is the mark of a truly accomplished 
player of traditional Irish.

Steve




http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/trad_irish_harmonica

Steve's CD of mostly traditional Irish,  "Blowing Through The Reeds,"  is 
now available!  Hear clips at http://www.gjk2.com/steveshaw/cd.htm