[Harp-L] What to play off the cuff

[martin oldsberg <martinoldsberg@xxxxxxxxx>]

This isn´t something that keeps me awake at night, but occasionally I reflect upon what is the best thing to play when asked to perform something impromptu, just a bar or two in case you have a harmonica at hand and someone ask you for a sample of how it sounds. (Generally I do not recommend carrying around a harmonica at all times, that seems just to encourage abuse and further confirm the publics low estimate of the instrument. The  portability of the thing is too often confused with some supposed widely felt need to listen to a harmonica every now and then. You never see tuba players terrorizing pub crowds with recently acquired skills.)

  As a diatonic player I use to opt for a blues riff of sorts. Many would settle for a scale, but that´s a bit dry. (Howard Levy had an interesting take on the scale theme when he performed on the Garrison Keillor show (who said he couldn´t play octaves?). I´ve also seen Toots on a TV-show when asked to play something on his ?odd? instrument just rush through all three octaves chromatically at lightning speed. He had heard that question many times.)

  Your national anthem could be something, but they are generally rather boring (envy the French with that great song; works reasonably well in 2 pos). A Beatles tune ?? but which one? ?Stardust?? ? one of the ten most recorded songs of the last century I read someplace. (But tricky: starting the refrain in 1 pos you have to pull off an overdraw on 7D; probably the most difficult note on the diatonic. To risky. Starting an octave lower it tends to get a bit mushy.) 

  The point is not to show off ? but still somehow show you can play.

  Nowadays I tend to pull off something jazzy/bluesy in 12 pos, going through first two octaves in major pentatonic and wailing a bit on 6D - but I think a recognizable tune is to be preferred.

 As I said, no big thing but it would be interesting to see some suggestions. What do you chose? ?Oh Susannah?? ?Love me do? intro? ?Eine kleine Nachtmusik?? ?Rule Britannia?? 

 

Cheers,

Martin


__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around 
http://mail.yahoo.com