Re: [Harp-L] Playing in the groove...

["Planet Harmonica" <lists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I think there's a distinction to be made here. 

Playing in the groove is, to me at least, different from playing "groovy stuff" ie. funk, hip-hop, etc. 

I think all musical genres have their particular groove. It's not just funk, hip hop, etc.

The groove of a music is a kind of internal beat, something not necessarily explicit but evident to people who have a serious experience in listening to that particular genre. Irish music has its groove. Musette has its groove. Etc.

This is not something that was always evident to me, and it makes it all the harder to define in words. I think I became aware of this a good while after I started digging into gypsy jazz. The rhythm section in gypsy jazz (driven mostly by one or, more often, two guitars) is called La Pompe (the pump) and when you hear it, the name is evident. For the longest time I could not figure out whty sometimes it felt to me that la pompe flowed naturally and when others would play it it felt awkward, for lack of a better word, even though what they were playing was quasi-identical.

I think it's all got to do with how the musician (accopanyist or solist) places himself in relation to the beat. Quite often, the player will play on the beat or expected fractions of the beat. Most often, to my ears, a player who does that doesn't groove. He may rock, but he doesn't groove. I know it's not helping much and most unscientific. I think the groove of jazz is called swing, most other grooves don't have a name or probably haven't been analysed as much as swing has, so most jazz players will know how to swing, and (in my experience) many funk players think they groove but they don't...

Well that's it for my long and mostly unhelpful reflection on the topic ;-)

Ben FELTEN
http://harmonica.typepad.com