[Harp-L] Improv

["Glenn Weiser" <celticguitar1@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Martin writes:

(and I like this short paragraph most especially out of his entire very
well-written post):

"Learn the tune and then improvise, would be a good general rule to the
aspiring player. Not written in stone, of course, the point is to make 
something
that sounds, interesting, beautiful or whatever is yr aesthetic."

...I've just returned from The Garden State Harmonica Festival, where I 
was,
once again fascinated by the improvisational ability of a few of  the jazz
oriented players there.  This was precisely one of my main  questions (since
I've "gotten lost" before despite not having the skills to  improvise the 
way
these guys do and am much too timid to venture too far  afield)...."just how 
does
one guarantee finding one's way back to the  melody?"...(I'd been listening
to Chris Bauer, Charles Spranklin and Phil  Catabellotta, specifically at 
that
point)....

Phil explained it ...saying that there were times one did get  "lost"...most
especially if you did not keep the main melody in mind...that it  helped to
have a great accompanist (Keyboard player, etc) to bring back  one's 
focus..but
that learning the song thoroughly, "knowing" it inside and  out, usually 
helps
you wend your way back no matter how far out into the  stratosphere you've
gone.  Smo-Joe has told me the same thing when I've  listened in amazement 
to
how far "out" he goes from the original song.   Their lightning fast runs on
chromatics are so different from the saxophone  players I usually listen to; 
I'm
still adjusting.

I'm rather sure Miles and the other great jazz improv artists knew  every
note, nuance and phrase of every song they thereafter chose to cover  and 
make
their own.

Elizabeth
**************

Regarding this, the key to not 'getting lost' is to know (1) what the chord 
line of the tune is, not just the melody, and more importantly, (2) how to 
improvise over the "chord of the moment." For this you need to know some 
music theory, and and it just so happens that the harmonica is a very poor 
vehicle for the study of theory on a account of it's design. You should 
learn the scale that relates to the chord of the moment, which degrees of 
that scale are chord-tones (1, 3, 5, and sometimes others) and non-chord 
tones, and the eight ways in which non-chords can be used in a riff (passing 
tone, neighboring tone, appoggiatura, etc).
That's a lot work. I have explained the whole thing in full detail in my 
book "Blues and Rock Harmonica," though.

http://www.celticguitarmusic.com/harpbook.htm

There's no reason a harmonica player can't learn to improvise like a sax or 
trumpet player. It's just a question of putting in the effort.

-Glenn Weiser