Re: [Harp-L] Building solos

[rdg <rdg@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello Michael,

This isn't a "holy grail" answer, but it may help:

Rather than listen to harp players for improv ideas, give a listen to
horn players and guitar players. I've said many times, for example,
that my playing owes as much to Woody Herman and Jeff Beck as it does
to, say, Paul Jones or Mark Ford or Sugar Blue (I'd say those players
are the closest "somebody else" harp players that play a style similar
to mine, or to what I would like mine to be).

For starters, I might recommend Woody, Pete Fountain, Allman Brothers,
and/or maybe Mike Bloomfield's stuff on Super Session. Remeber, the
point, though, is not to merely copy--it's to develop a bag of riffs
and tricks etc that you can mix or match depending on mood, style,
etc.

Ron/datadigr

Thursday, March 17, 2005, 1:32:53 PM, Mike F. wrote:

MF> I've been working really hard lately at learning
MF> overblows, how to follow chord changes, and scale
MF> patterns on top of listening to a wide range of blue
MF> harp players at every chance I get.<balance of
MF> Mike's post snipped>