RE: [Harp-L] OB Tone and Intonation

["Rick Dempster" <rick.dempster@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I second that Bill. I had an exchange recently with Iceman, who seemed
to think that my admission that I found  positions outsite
1st,2nd,3rd,4th & 5th difficult to play 'on the gig' in a useful,
meaningful way, was an affront to the concept of the 'A' for Advancement
in SPAH. I notice the expressions of appreciation used on this list most
often consist of words like 'monster' and 'scary' and people being
'blown away' etc. etc. as if music was some huge technological project
that must ever become more sophisticated, or it's not worth knowing
about. 
Then again, you might view the whole history of US popular music as an
expression of this attitude, both for better and for worse. What was hot
in 1929 was on the scrap heap a decade later; from New Orleans to Bop in
thirty years or so; from Chicago blues to gangster-rap in about the
same. Compare this to the musics of the old worlds; they change, but
very slowly, and remain rooted in their ancient traditions nevertheless
(a mind-set that probably connects to slow economic development too; but
thats another story)
I think I might buy one of Chris Michalek's CDs after reading that!
Cheers,
RD


>>> "Bill Hines" <billhines4@xxxxxxxxxxx> 25/08/2006 13:05:46 >>>
I wasn't actually going to comment but I feel compelled (which is
where
I often get myself in trouble!). But I really, really enjoyed that
post.
I think it was actually one of the most important posts in the few
years
I've been reading harp-l. Not because it gets me off the hook from
spending a lot of valuable time learning OB/OD when I have *so* much
else to learn, but just because I really feel that it was honest and
from the heart and most people just due to human nature can't be that
honest or objective once they've invested that much time and energy
into
something. 

Yes, I will still learn this and yes I do think it's important at some
point *depending* on how and what you want to play. But for me, right
now, I don't have any aim to be able to play chromatically on diatonic
or fluent high-end jazzy runs or in 12 positions. I'd just be happy if
I
could play the ODBG stuff that I love so much, to be able to
participate
in the local blues jam (I'm getting there), just to get to where I
think
I'm "intermediate". For these goals, right now I don't need OD/OB and
I
have refused to feel pressured into that because so many awesome
players
here advocate it and do it. Someday. For now, I have other hurdles to
get over to meet the aforementioned goals. Between technique and tone
and equipment and music theory stuff, it's like a damn four year
college
degree I'm trying to earn here while working and running a household.
Much of that stuff is "hard", at least for me, and I don't need this
other stuff right now what with the special harps or tuning I need to
do
it and all that jazz. I know some will say "learn it from the start",
for me, that's not the way.

To be honest, I was feeling guilty about not learning this, and
feeling
like I was "copping out" which I never let myself do. Hearing what
Chris
said, coming from a guy that mastered this technique, made me feel
better so maybe that's why it hit home to me as a novice player
struggling every day to rise above novice and taking a slow,
methodical
path and trying not to skip the hard things or take shortcuts (i.e.
despite what many say, I will NOT go to a blues jam and toot and honk
and squawk and embarrass myself and put others through that pain until
I
have built a vocabulary of things to "say" and learned some
musicianship, and I'm doing that my way).

But anyway, yeah I agree, that post I thought was a landmark post on
harp-l.

Having said that, we all know our "Chris". He could well turn around
and
say he was pulling our leg or perhaps it's some sly con from his
twisted
mind to shy others away from od/ob so he can be the od/ob king, haha.
I
am JUST kidding about that!

PS fjm I sure hope this is the post you were talking about or I'm
going
to feel damn stupid (again!)

Bill

-----Original Message-----
From: harp-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx [mailto:harp-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of fjm
Sent: Thursday, August 24, 2006 10:19 PM
To: h-l
Subject: Re: [Harp-L] OB Tone and Intonation

I want to thank Chris for his revelatory and insightful post of 
yesterday.  fjm
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Harp-L@xxxxxxxxxx 
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