[Harp-L] What is a scale??..damn kid, what the heck's a position?? What's an animal

[Jason Ricci <jason@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Samblancato wrote:
 
"learn the scale for 3rd position this solo has all the notes
for that position in it or most of them anyway.  For me, just learning a
scale out of context doesn't give me any "grip" on how 3rd position sounds
across a chord progression and how it makes ultimate "musical sense" in a
song.  So I just figured that this would make good musical sense to others
as well and he does seem to get it in that he has started to play around
with other 3rd position songs. But I'm also thinking that maybe the actual,
formal scale has a place here and that I'm leaving out something really
important because of my complete right-brained approach to playing; namely
the theory.  So the questions that come to my mind here are 1, how do you
learn 3rd position blues playing, using scale practice? 2, aren't the solos
just scales in a more customized form? Wouldn't I have to get in to theory
of how a given scale works over a give progression of chords?"


I'm writing this, not in response to just him but as an
addition/reinforcement to what Michael Rubin already stated perfectly. I may
sound a bit passionate here perhaps confrontational but I don't mean it that
way it's just riff/lick/position type thinking can really short change an
artist I should know because my own limitations chiefly reside here and my
greatest contributions to my own playing came from surpassing the few I have
in addition to totally rocking out! It's good to see so much music talk here
thanks for bringing it up Samblancato!

The first and last time I asked Michael Peloquin what position he was
playing in, he said: "Standing Up".

 Harmonica Positions are like picking up differently tuned guitars to play
in whatever key...as Michael Rubin pointed out very eloquently any scale or
riff can be played on any harmonica in any position the only variables lie
in what octave, how does the scale sound: where are the sweet spots, nice
bends, challenges etc..) I think of picking up a different harp to play the
same scale in 3rd/2nd/4th/whatever position when the band starts a new
song/changes key is the same as placing a capo on a guitars fret board. By
capoing you don't have to change your finger patterns to reproduce the same
licks/scales/chords only the pitch and the action changes...I do it all the
time cause I like the way certain positions are laid out and how they sound
etc...I couldn't play every song in a night on one harp and make it sound
good the way Michalek or Howard can...but I can rock hard in a handful of
positions...However learning more about how to play anything on any harp
scales/riffs patterns/turn arounds etc. totally opens up the harmonica and
the harmony and ideas for days in any position I would dare say much much
more than learning a riff in that position does.
 
  There is one very popular harmonica teacher who I will not name...he must
have changed this by now but at one time I heard him say on a video "avoid
play the 3 draw unbent in 3rd position." This is ridiculous as that note is
a major six and part of the Dorian minor mode which 3rd pos. happens to lend
itself nicely to. That note is one of the most mysterious, regal,
beautifully minor things you can play over a minor key and in a major
key!!!!! Forget it !!!It's the damn major 6! Whether your in 3rd cross or
127,849,30 Position. Its the same note as your 5 blow in cross! This cat
just told people that that note in 3rd wasn't bluesy! I wonder if he knew
that it's the same as the 4th note in "Juke" and a billion other cross harp
tunes... I'm sure he must have done away with this statement by now but I'm
sure the theory and cause of that statement came from learning a position by
learning licks in that position off records! So as great as it is to do
that, it can mess you up if you assign a position or anything really: only
the value of what you have heard others do with it before.
 
 In the past, when Chris Michalek's bands have opened for mine...or after
Michael Peloquin and others for that matter I was so scared to play! Because
Chris and Michael too are such giants at what were talking about here...So I
just had to get up and rock...and that was fine..I was like: I'll never be
that good so I just have to kick ass...The point is art is subjective, all
approaches are valid, there can be rules, guidelines, and there can be none.
The most satisfying playing for me is a close balance of technique and
soul...) Once I did acid, ok more than once...anyway, I listened to a lot of
harp players and they were all sounding like different animals that one
night...Kim Wilson was this Big Old mean Crow like huge maybe a California
Condor, like you'd here his wings flapping a mile away but he'd still swoop
down and get you....Adam Gussow was this amazing little darting, agile
humming bird just pollinating all these beautiful flowers hovering with
precision all cute , wonderful and perfect..Pat Ramsey was like a Fox or a
Wolf he had a bite not as big as Kim's but he was had that agility too like
the Humming Bird (A.G.) so he was terrific...I never listened too Howard on
L.S.D. But I can tell you this: Little Walter is a Rattle Snake.


Loving playing on tour with my lap top so I don't have to miss the great "L"
addiction!
Loving the list
Jason 
 www.jasonricci.com