Re: [Harp-L] re: Improv in Blues

[Pierre <plavio@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

It is interesting that recently there was a movie about a guy called Ray who 
was a proficient piano player who could play anybody's style but could not 
find his own. It's not easy to be really original, at the same time its hard 
to really sound like somebody else (that was a talent of Ray's I guess).

I think Michael and I are both around the same level of development. I 
seldom tab stuff and when I do I never learn to play it til the end anyway. 
I prefer to play by ear and invent my own stuff. Anyways I seem to be 
getting much better in terms of improvisation variety (some days are better 
than others), but I do seem to come back to certain themes. I don't think 
this is good, but I try and gently ease away from that place I wish I had 
not returned to and move to greener pastures.

Anyways like Michael, I need to make an effort to work with the chord 
changes. I need to learn the IV and V blues scales and arpeggio notes and I 
need to learn to work the notes in between. I need to work with backing 
tracks more to see how it works.

By the way I was playing my harp in the car this morning while waiting in 
line at the Tim Horton's drive thru and as I'm playing vigorously away I 
notice this gorgeous young blonde in a fancy sports car looking at me in her 
side mirror, anyway she kept looking and looking and I kept looking and 
playing so she'd keep looking, our eyes were locked together for a long 
moment and well finally after a good long while I had to stop playing as I 
was getting embarassed. I sure felt like going over to say hi. Wish I had 
more nerve. Anybody got any hot stories?

Pierre.