Re: [Harp-L] Mr. Heresy rags on "music" and blues

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The funny thing about this discussion is I disagree with both protagonists !!!

Music is something that is way beyond the way that you decide to approach it
technically, and even though technique is a component of how music is 
produced,
it's not, by far, the only component. 2nd position doesn't mean blues, blues
doesn't require second position, and I guess I'm lucky enough that I rarely if
ever analyse how a phrase was played while listening to it, unless the phrase
bugs me enough that I want to figure out *how* it was played.

That being said, no matter how much soul one pours into one's playing, 
a limited
vocabulary is a limited vocabulary, and the plague of us harp players 
is that we
tend to all have *the same* limited vocabulary. Hence a lassitude that I must
admit I myself feel at most harp player's jams. Not for technical reasons but
simply for reasons of repetitivity induced by the aforementioned limited
vocabulary.

Also, I don't equate having one's own voice with which position you're playing
in. There are many players out there who stick mostly to 2nd position 
and sound
unique (Paul deLay, Sugar Blue, JJ Milteau, heck, even Sonny Boy 
Williamson has
been oft imitated but never successfully...)

However, using other positions is sometimes a tool to force a change of
approach. I guess it's a false recourse in the sense that one should be 
able to
play with one's own voice no matter how one approaches a piece or solo. But
still, it's a way to force change.

I guess that's my guilty secret. When I'm invited to play at jams 
(which rarely
happens these days considering my frequentation of establishments where such
events are held) where a harp player is already on stage, I 
systematically pick
a harp different from the one he's using in order to sound different. I
shouldn't. I should force myself to use the same harp he's using and play
differently. That's be more productive... Get rid of the crutch !

One last thing: while I'm fully in agreement of the argument that technical
proficiency and/or theory knowledge does not make good music, it shouldn't be
an excuse to pursue mediocrity. When you can't bend properly, using this
argument as an excuse not to practise will not make you a better musician
either...

Ben FELTEN
http://harmonica.typepad.com