Re: [Harp-L] The way I see it; [and the rest of us]?

["billannette" <mojoworkin@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I think that Iceman and Chris are saying the same kinds of things but using different terms to explain it. The underlying fact is that both are advanced players who have absorbed all the necessary "technical" aspects of playing, and have advanced to playing what is in their heads, using the combined music theory and harp mechanics they have learned over the years.

I taught high school music for many years, and in teaching jazz band started teaching improvisation with the blues scale, because the kids could learn the scale, and in improvising not play a "wrong" note, thus freeing them from fear and opening their creativity. Later, I taught the theory behind the chords, so they could branch out to other scales, etc. I will never forget the look on their faces when I brought in a band to do a clinic, and they saw that the bass player, in soloing, was singing along as he improvised, proving that he knew what he was going to play before he played it. It just impressed upon them the freedom you could have when all the technical stuff (scales, chordal theory, manipulating the fingers and/or your mouth on your instrument, were mastered). That doesn't mean that the guys who play only by ear don't do the same thing-it' just that they have absorbed the "theory" through their ears and fingers instead of the printed word.

So Iceman and Chris are expressing how they can use their freedom from "technique" to allow the musical expression to blossom. It's a goal for the rest of us, but the road to that goal is through woodshedding! Only then can you forget to "think".

Bill





"If only Chris would add "IMO" at the end of sentences such as "NOTES and Position do not matter".
 
I've been moved to my feet by one perfect sustained note played by Albert Collins at a live show. I've been moved to tears by one perfectly placed note w/gentle vibrato in a trumpet solo by Chet Baker. I've been moved to wonderment by the one unexpected choice but somehow perfect note played by Miles Davis in many of his solos. Neil Young still excites me with his one note choice solo during "Cinnamon Girl".
 
Listen to the power of a well placed note in the harmonica playing of Big Walter or Jerry Portnoy - very accessable stuff to any level of harmonica player. 
 
Note choice (based on knowledge of scale degree, relation to the harmony, timing and a feel for the rhythm underlying) will make an audience react.
 
Nothing wrong in thinking this through while learning, practicing, and (gasp) even during a performance, IMO. It works for me and many of my favorite musicians."
 
The Iceman