Re: Tilted embouchure~~and "upside down" embouchure

[Joel Fritz <jfritz666@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

scott wrote:
> Bob wrote:
> 
>  >I'm sure others will correct me if I'm wrong, but many or even most of the
>  >Chicago players played 'numbers down' - I believe this was the 'industry
>  >standard' then. My own harp master at the time, Stu Ramsay, played 
> this way, and
>  >I have always believed that it was commonplace back then.
>  
>  
> There were/are some Chicago blues harp players who played "numbers 
> down", but I believe *most* of those did so by accident - that was the 
> way they first picked up a harp when they didn't know any better, and 
> they never bothered to change - rather than by some sort of conscious 
> decision.  Little Walter, Big Walter, Rice Miller, James Cotton, Junior 
> Wells, and George "Harmonica" Smith all played "numbers up", so I think 
> that would have to qualify "numbers up" as the industry standard.
>  
>  >A (sorry, somewhat weak) analogy that comes to mind is the lefty 
> guitarist (like
>  >Hendrix or Albert King) that flips over a standard axe and now gets 
> the high
>  >string bends by squeezing the hand, rather than extending the fingers 
> - a physical advantage.
>  
> You're correct about Albert King - he and Otis Rush are two notable 
> left-handed blues guitarists who played/play a righty-strung guitar that 
> is just flipped over and played left-handed.  But Hendrix didn't play 
> that way.  He re-strung his guitars "correctly" for a left-handed player 
> - in other words, skinny string towards the floor, just like a 
> right-handed player. 
>  
> Scott
> 

The Hendrix upside down thing is becoming an urban legend. I was lucky 
enough to see Hendrix a couple of times and be able to remember it. Yes, 
lucky on both counts, not to mention making it home in one piece. <g> 
It was pretty clear to me that he was playing left handed but strung 
"conventionally."  In spite of the large amount of film and  videotape 
of Hendrix, the story lives on.  A couple of years ago there was a 
bitter argument on another list I subscribe to about the upside down 
theory that led to people angrily posting links to pictures along with 
the flames.


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