Fwd: [Harp-L] How to get beyond (my) basic limitations?

["Winslow Yerxa" <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>]

Wim - 

Years ago I transcribed several of Toots' solos with an eye to seeing 
how he came up with melodic patterns that "lay well" on the 
instrument - my idea of what lay well being very similar to your:

"lines which are based on the layout of the harmonica . . .. lines 
that need 'limited' control over all the variables at the same time."

Like you, I had identified slide change, breath change, and hole 
change (with distinction between hole leap to a distant hole and hole 
step to a directly neighboring hole as these made a difference in the 
continuity of breath; achieving legato was a big part of my thinking 
at the time) as the primary elements in getting from one note to 
another.

I had an idea of getting Toots to comment on this and come up with 
something like the exercises you speak of. I know he has done 
thorough investigations on his own, and we discussed the possibility, 
but he simply did not care to address the subject in a linear, 
didactic way. Also, publishers were not interested in anything this 
advanced (even though it seems fundamental from my point of view, as 
I'm sure it does from yours).

Tommy Reilly came up with a series of exercises that were published 
in, perhaps, the 1950s; various people have copies. Before he died, 
Douglas Tate re-edited these materials and they are available from 
Mrs. Tommy Reilly, I believe. From what I've seen of them, I don't 
think they are really what you're looking for.

TOots has come up with what seems to be a template for jazz 
harmonica. Many of the players who have come after him, much as they 
might not care to hear or believe it, sound like they have benefited 
enormously from the results of his investigations and would have 
difficulty in finding harmonic and scale territory where his 
footprints will not be detected and followed, even without meaning 
to. Is this inevitable, considering Toots' deep experience with the 
harmonic territory of the style and the tuning layout of the 
instrument? Much as I love his playing, I like to think not.

Two ways to approach the problem present themselves quickly:

The pure action approach (which is neutral as to note layout, i.e. 
would work with dimi and toni tuning, etc.) and the interval grid 
approach. By that I mean looking at sequences of intervals. There are 
various systematic ways of approaching these in composition and 
arranging, though I ahve to admit I know little about them. Recently 
there was talk on Slidemeister of an interval-based instrument-
neutral study approach to improvisation authored by Joe Messina, a 
guitarist who also plays jazz chromatic in a non-Toots influenced 
style. Something that simultaneously and systematically approached 
both interval-based patterns (by this I mean outside the hierarchy of 
identified scales and harmonic considerations) and action patterns on 
the harmonica might be what you're looking for - and which you would 
have to build more or less from the ground up.

I know this is exceedingly vague and is essentially throwing the ball 
back to you; I hope it provides food for thought.

Winslow


--- In harp-l-archives@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, Wim Dijkgraaf 
<w.dijkgraaf@...> wrote:

For many years I have been studying the basic physical movements for 
playing
the harmonica. I have been playing excersises
that helped me to control the elementary movements as well as the
combination of these movements which I think are
1) the horizontal movement of the harmonica
2) the movement of blowing and drawing
3) slide movement

For some time now, I have to conclude that this helped me to overcome 
only
the basic limitations of playing the harmonica. 
But I would like to be able to play faster and more fluent in every 
key.

One solution could be to make extensive use of lines which are based 
on the
layout of the harmonica. Lines that need 'limited' 
control over all the variables at the same time. I think this is the
solution Toots uses in a very effective way. The way
he uses the layout of the harmonica is incredibly inventive and 
creative. I
think his playing of 'Começar de Novo' on 
'The Brasilian Project volume 1' is one of the many good examples.

My questions are like the following:
1) Does anyone have ideas on how to overcome the limitations of the 
basic
physical movements?
2) Are there any excersises suggested by other great harmonica 
players?
3) Did anyone study the approach of Toots and are there basic 
guidelines
with suggested excersises?
4) What other kind of approaches do exist that have proved to be 
valuable?

This could be a great new starting point for me to study for the next
decade.

Abraços,

Wim Dijkgraaf
http://www.wimdijkgraaf.com



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