Re: [Harp-L] Playing wicked fast

[Michael Fugazzi <mfugazzi67@xxxxxxxxx>]

I tend to be notey when I play, but I am not a speed
demon.  However, I got a few speedy lines I like to
play.  They are derived from scale patterns.  Some are
from Barrett's books, some are from Jazz Harp, and a
couple come from music books.

You can take a scale and arrange all the notes in
patterns by 4th or 3rds.  You can also skip a note,
then come back to it, then move up one, etc.

Like Jason said, take a scale pattern or riff or scale
and start it at different intervals.  Popper does that
a lot (he uses the first pos. major four pattern in
just about every song).  I wish I had a harp handy to
tab one or two out, but Dave Barrett's book (the two
on scales), along with Richard Hunter's offer several.

Two common patterns are triplets based off of the
blues scale like 2 3'2 3' 4+ 3' 4+ 4' 4+, etc. and
variations of 4' 4 5 4 4' 3.

I can think of several players who know one or two
patterns really well and then use those as their
"homebase"  for phrasing.  As Jason said, there are
infinite variations, and knowing one or two really
well will get you a long way!

Learning your arppegios and basing patterns off of
that can be fun/easy too.  Then you can use those
patterns in different keys.  For example, a first
position major pattern would could sound hip in third
minor because of the extensions involved.  The first
position mixolydian scale actually works quite well in
several positions.    

--- mfugazzi67 <mfugazzi67@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> --- In harp-l-archives@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, Jason Ricci
> <jason@...> wrote:
> 
>  I know you said you were already working on the
> Blues scale and the
> pentatonic...but maybe you haven't tried starting
> your scale on the second
> note moving down to the 1st then move up to the 3rd
> move down to the 2nd
> then move up to the 4th scale degree move down to
> 3rd and on and on in tab
> it's like
> 3-draw(Bent a half step)-2 drw, 4 blow-3 drw, 4
> draw-4 blow, 5 draw-4
> draw,6
> blow 5 draw....then repeat this back wards moving
> down in the opposite
> format...You can star on the third note and move
> down three then the 6th
> note...or move up to the down three...This is a more
> infinite way of
> practicing for speed than licks cause it's almost
> mathematically
> impossible
> to run out of them...of course I suck at math ...I
> hope this makes since
> written out I just gave a couple of ex.s but there
> are so so many ways to
> these runs and they can move fast without taking you
> away from what your
> trying to say/whatever the chords are behind
> you...Their not riffs
> made with
> easy breathing patterns in other words but many of
> the patterns aren't all
> that hard just a spot here and there that makes for
> a good challenge.
> Hope that helps.
> Love
> Jason
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Harp-L is sponsored by SPAH, http://www.spah.org
> Harp-L@...
> http://harp-l.org/mailman/listinfo/harp-l
> 
> --- End forwarded message ---
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 


Mike Fugazzi
vocals/harmonica

http://www.myspace.com/mikefugazzi
http://www.niterail.com

"Capitalize on your own strengths; develop your own style.
The world needs another harp player doing Little Walter licks
as much as it needs another Elvis impersonator."
-Paul deLay

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around 
http://mail.yahoo.com