Re: [Harp-L] Playing Country

[Winslow Yerxa <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>]

The answers are not clear cut. A lot of modern country sounds like
rock&roll with some added twang and steel guitar, and sometimes borrows
vocal melismas from black gospel music (Reba McEntire).

Country has always borrowed from blues and from Tin Pan Alley and
whatever else has been going on in American music (just listen to
Jimmie Rodgers' old records from the 1930s). But it does have a
background in major-key sacred singing and in modal fiddle tunes that
originated in Scotland.

If you're bridging from blues, I'd say:

Listen. Some things fit and some don't. Just because you know it
doesn't mean it works.

There's a stronger tendency to sound melodic in country than in blues
or rock, while drive, tension (like long bent notes or repeated riffs),
and "disturbance texture" (whipping up a rhythmic froth), and hypnotic
monotony are all more accepted in blues and rock than in country.

Major scales are going to be more important in country than in Blues.
Does this mean a wholesale shift to first-position diatonic? No.
Country harp players have been using second position for a very long
time, and Charlie McCoy has used it almost exclusively in his long
Nashville career. But he played clean single notes, didn't do a lot of
slurry bending, and avoided playing a lot of bent blue notes and Draw 5
in second position when it didn't fit. 

Draw 5 in second position is a minor 7th, which sounds wrong in pure
major scale contexts (but right in blues-flavored context and in modal
tunes that use a lowered 7th). You can either avoid that note or play a
harp with Draw 5 raised (the so-called country tuning, which can be
purchased in Special 20 and maybe some other Hohner models).

The major pentatonic scale, 1-2-3-5-6, is good to know in 1st, 2nd, 3rd
and 12th positions. it will give you a lot of licks that work against
country and country-related styles.

Solos in country tend to be shorter than in blues or rock. It may be
only half a verse or a couple of phrases. Watch and listen for the
prevailing etiquette in any given situation.

Winslow

--- Mike Fugazzi <mfugazzi67@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> So how is it different then blues?  Specifically, what kind of scales
> would I work on?  What works for both?  What do you avoid?
>  
> Mike Fugazzi
> Harmonica/Vocals
> http://www.myspace.com/mikefugazzi
>  
>  
> "Music should be healing; music should uplift the soul; music should
> inspire. There is no better way of getting closer to God, of rising
> higher towards the spirit, of attaining spiritual perfection than
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> -Hazrat Inayat Khan
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