Re: [Harp-L] Safe/Avoid

[IcemanLE@xxxxxxx]

In a message dated 8/23/2007 4:54:21 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
murray.tyler@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:

What I  donât get is the idea of which notes/holes are âsafeâ to 
play and which  are to be avoided.


Safe/Avoid is a training wheel approach to riding a musical  bicycle. It is 
designed to get beginners (on harmonica and music) playing during  the crawl 
before you walk stage, to be discarded as soon as possible. To focus  on it too 
much is a misdirection of time and energy.
 
All notes are safe to use as long as you know how to use them. Knowing how  
to use them should quickly replace safe/avoid as a focus point in  learning. If 
you have a good one-on-one teacher, it will accelerate the process. 
 
Your questions are valid, but you won't find a definitive answer - "C" and  
"E" do work quite well musically. Learn to let your ear be your guide. You've  
got enough correct musical training in your subconscious from years of 
listening  to allow your instinct to kick in.
 
One exercise I give my students is to have them play all the notes  available 
to them at their current level of technique while a background track  drones 
on the I chord (created by a computer music program a la Band in a Box or  
perhaps taping my piano playing) - if blues is your thang, it would be a shuffle  
groove. This doesn't mean run through the notes quickly. You play each one 
and  give it a LONG TONE - let it hang in the air and fill the room for 10 
seconds or  so - solid and unwavering - NO VIBRATO. This give you time to really 
listen to  that note and it's relationship to the I chord. Soon you will realize 
that some  notes can sound great, others create a tension that is suggests 
moving to  another note. For instance, the "C" held over a G chord drone feels 
like it  wants to move towards a "B" one half step down. (This is suspension - 
resolution  in music terminology. More specifically, suspended fourth 
resolving itself. Very  common in the "A-MEN" cadence in church music).
 
This works for all the positions and helps build a more valuable  
understanding of what is going on. Feeling the gravitational pull inherent  inside each 
note will help you develop a more organic sense of note choice  and is a more 
accelerated approach than the traditional memorized solo and lick  based one.
 
The Iceman
 
 



************************************** Get a sneak peek of the all-new AOL at 
http://discover.aol.com/memed/aolcom30tour