[Harp-L] re: building a solo

[rainbowjimmy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Usually the solo is the melody of the song. For example: listen to the sax solo
in the Sam the Sham masterpiece "I'm in with the Out Crowd". You change things
a little. You can change the note (But why mess with such a melody), you can
change the rhythm(triplets, 1/8th notes etc), you can add notes (chords octaves
etc), you can change the volume, and you can add tonal variations--sax players
put a chicken sax sound or a vibrato.

Sonny Terry is a master at playing a melody and adding interesting tonal
variation.His version of "Down by the Riverside" is a sublime example of this.

Less is more usually. You don't need to squeeze a millions notes in. Lay back.
Be cool.

You can get inspiration from a lot of sources but it's important when you're
first starting out to listen to harp players because there are playing
techniques that are fundamental to harp playing and you need to know how(and
when) people use these techniques tongue slaps, head shakes, octaves, chording,
those kind of things.Sometimes you can get nice solos by blending two disparate
harp techniques, for example put some octaves in a Sonny Terry solo. Or add
some whoops to a Jimi Hendrix solo.

Rainbow Jimmy
http://www.spaceanimals.com
http://www.soundclick.com/theelectricstarlightspaceanimals.htm