[Harp-L] Improv



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





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