From: chris smith <harpshredder@xxxxxxxxx>
Well, I can see I haven't won a lot of friends
w/my posting ! I'm not
trying to be cool at all but just totally honest. I
don't know a lot about
Indonesian gardening, structural engineering, Farsi
and tons of other
topics but harmonica and music , I have invested a
fair amount of my
time in.
I'm coming from a place where soulfulness comes
first. I've seen so
many postings about speed and again I think it's a
shortcoming of
American culture maybe but I recently heard a Wm.
Clarke solo where
the 1st 8 bars or so are filled w/one long note and I
just thought ,"Wow, this is beautifully simple." You
could feel his personality. Have
you guys heard of Albert King ? I'll tell you one guy
who had : Stevie
Ray Vaughn. What I'm saying is (and of course taste is
subjective) the
further you get out on a limb away from the roots the
thinner and more
ephemeral you're likely to be.
So, quite specifically, what I like about great
blues
harp players is (and what I think one should naturally
expect) is great
tone, rhythm and attack in the low range. Then,
whatever technical
facility one has beyond that is gravy and starts to
demonstrate mastery
of the diatonic instrument. All flash doesn't thrill
me. Hendrix was a phenomenal blues player w/killer
tone . He had chops sure but as an almost endless
palette for his expression . Technique should be a
vehicle not an end in itself.
So, thanks for the kind words Rob. It's too bad
you guys don't want
have lunch w/a real harp nerd.
Chris
"Hammer" Smith
P.S. Shoot for the stars babies but mostly just
have fun that's the only
reason I started playing.