Re: [Harp-L] Volume Challenges

[Bradford Trainham <bradford.trainham@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Oddly enough..., I'm arriving at a similar place for playing out in
general.
I've toyed with the idea of further honing my harmonica technique and
attempting to develop an energetic style featuring guitar and
harmonica and maybe a bass and maybe light percussion, but with the
emphasis on nuance rather than amplification. 
I'll probably never leave rock/Blues behind as they form an almost
organic part of the way I perceive music, but I'm either getting older
and beginning to feel it or I just have a need for something else
musically.
"Folk Jazz"?  If such exists, who'd admit to playing it? 
Brad Trainham

On Mon, 29 Oct 2007 10:37:10 -0400, you wrote:

>I had been playing harp for a long time before discovering things like
>Harp-L and SPAH. Rarely did I meet other "real" players to find out if some
>of the challenges that I was dealing with were just personal or universal in
>the harp world. This volume thing when playing electric with others has
>always been an issue for me. For many years I just blamed myself for being a
>"self-taught ear player". I just figured I was missing something because I
>didn't learn in a conventional way. My cries for volume control by other
>players usually gave me the "cry baby" tag. To "just play" was so much
>easier said than done. I blew out a lot more harps in my earlier years
>before I learned to just walk away from the impending disaster. Loud
>situations also put me in what I called "survivor licks mode". Zero
>creativity, just blow as hard as I could with basic riffs that I didn't have
>to hear clear to pull off. The results were and still are always the same
>after gigs like that. I felt like crap and I dreaded getting back home to a
>quiet environment to discover just how many harps I destroyed. The one
>positive thing these experiences have done for me was push me into a lot
>more acoustic based situations. My love for playing acoustic harp more than
>electric is a direct result of hating coming home feeling like crap. The
>only reason I got into music in the first place was to have fun, feel good
>and express myself. I also credit the acoustic stuff for bringing a lot more
>melodic ideas into my head. If all you have to think about is listening to
>the other musicians and playing off of them your mind has more "space" to
>create. In the right situations those melodic ideas work awesome in the
>electric environment.
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>WB
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