Re: [Harp-L] Potato Potahtoe-LONG

[<lists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Sandy is a great player and I would wager that he might have had
> misgivings about Spain when listening to playback in the studio. But,
still
> it stayed on the CD. I can bet that I will find things on my CDs,
Richard's
> and others where I would say "how could you?"

On this, I find myself agreeing with Richard. If Sandy had misgivings about
the track, the musical thing to do would have been to either re-record it or
not include it. It's not an isolated incident though. On many albums,
especially jazz oriented ones, some diatonic parts stick out and lack
musicality because (and I know I have stated this before) they are not
mastered well enough. Since we are led to believe that overblowers are the
top of the game, and I tend to agree to some degree, if they can't pull it
off, isn't the natural conclusion to suspect that, perharps, it wasn't a
musical choice to attempt that particular tune on the diatonic harp ?

Not that I'm saying the chromatic is necessarily a better choice, it's not
about one against the other in my mind... If the challenge was to prove that
the diatonic is better than the chromatic or vice-versa, it was stupid. If
the challenge was designed to prove that anything can be played on the
diatonic, it was also stupid. So I think not having the challenge isn't such
a bad idea.

Notwithstanding, I, for one, cannot help but wonder if there isn't a tiny
bit of obstinacy getting in the way of musicality here. And I agree with you
Michael that all harp players should learn to take criticism, but not from
other harp players (despite the pride I put in my reviews), but from simple
listeners. They are the ones who will ultimately decide if something is
worth playing or not, because they don't care about overblows, double stops
or whatever technique you can name. All they care about is music, and if a
phrase sounds off and they hear it*, they won't think "that was devilishly
tricky to play" they'll think "that was awful" !

Ben

* And they won't all hear it. One thing I learned playing live is that a
significant part of the audience won't hear your failings as long as they
are entertained. Thank god for small blessings...