Re: [Harp-L] Subject: Who decides who is Bad or Good?

["Joe Spiers" <moparjoe@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Joe Spiers" <moparjoe@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <EGS1217@xxxxxxx>
Sent: Saturday, July 02, 2005 5:54 PM
Subject: Re: [Harp-L] Subject: Who decides who is Bad or Good?


 When other musicians tell you that you have great tone or sounded good,
invite you back up, call you and ask you where you've been, then they dig
what you're doing. Usually they aren't going to tell you that you sucked,
they just won't let you play if they don't like it. Real players are pretty
good at recognizing talent and even if you blow it once in awhile, they will
still encourage you and nurture that talent. Unless they play guitar of
course....JUST KIDDING  heh

 chops- when you've got 'em, if you have something to say musically you'll
use them to get your point across. It's the ability to speak the harmonica
"language"

 tone- don't know how to describe it other than it's pleasing to listen to,
and if you've got it everyone will tell ya so. The secret here is to be able
to turn on the right tone for the given song- sweet, country-ish, or my
fav-0-rite FAT and SLIMEY

resonance- find a place with natural reverb like a bathroom or other place
with hard surfaces, and practice there. Softly. relaaxxxxx.... When you find
resonance, you'll know it as soon as it happens. Then a whole new world
opens up in your playing, and chops/tone follow close behind.

One thing to do is record yourself once in awhile, like making a mark on the
wall to see how you grew when you were a kid. If you can, record yourself
when playing with others, and listen close to how you fit in and sound, it's
an eye-opening experience. Either you'll get self affirmation, or you find
out how bad you sucked and then you fix it.

> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: <EGS1217@xxxxxxx>
> To: <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Saturday, July 02, 2005 12:02 PM
> Subject: [Harp-L] Subject: Who decides who is Bad or Good?
>
>
> > I'm not sure I care who said this:
> >
> > "But a bad player will always sound bad no matter what gear he uses"
> >
> > ....but as a recent newbie who reentered the harmonica world as a strict
> > amateur  fully expecting to remain so, and only recently began to learn
> some
> > techniques and some diatonic blues after playing chromatics for
ears  -- 
> how on
> > earth is someone like me to ever know whether I'm "good", "bad" or
merely
> > "passable", especially after hearing this?
> >
> > It took every ounce of courage I had to tentatively play my chromatic
for
> > the first time in public late at night in the lounge at Buckeye with a
> couple of
> >  very sweetly generous chrom players who insisted I join them (and I was
> > happy to  play below the guitar player so he could drown out any
mistakes)
> but
> > forced  myself to take that huge first step because friends I'd made
there
> > assured me  there would be no "judgments" and we were all equal -- all
> harmonica
> > players.  I believed that till now....
> >
> > Since I'm the only musical one in my family with no encouragement and
have
> > only been able to play what I hear, naturally I'm already unsure about
any
> > musical capabilities I might have, have had absolutely no harmonica
> players in
> > my life to give me pointers  or critiques so am, essentially, flying
> blind.
> >
> > I remember being told upon one of my earliest forays onto Harp-L that
all
> it
> > required to play Harmonica is "to blow with Soul" -- I needed to hear it
> and
> > have been following that advice while practicing diligently, since it so
> fit
> > my idea of what playing music is all about.  All I've ever wanted to  do
> is
> > play the music I hear in my head, and if I eventually got up  enough
> courage to
> > want to play for a few outsiders (other than  family), I'd certainly
hope
> > they wouldn't immediately decide  I was a BAD player because I'm nowhere
> of the
> > caliber of a Sonny  Terry, Big or Little Walter, etc.
> >
> > How on earth is someone ever to find out if they even have "chops" or
> "tone"
> > or "resonance" without proper input and not dismissive judgment?
> >
> > I suppose if there's a question in all of this it's this (for anyone  to
> > answer):  Who told you - or how did you find out YOU were a good
player?
> >
> > Elizabeth
> > _______________________________________________
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> >
>