[Harp-L] Phrasing and Spacing

[IcemanLE@xxxxxxx]

Now your talking. This is where creativity lives - phrasing and the silence  
between the notes.
 
Harmonica is the only instrument that you can play on the inhale, so it is  
truly one into which you breathe life.
 
As to spaces - learn to "Play" the silence as if it were a note rather than  
a time that you kill until you get to start playing again. 
 
Study phrasing - it's easy to figure out the notes played - it's how you  
play those notes that matters and it is more than "pressing the right button at  
the right time over and over again".
 
For instance - I began playing keys and harmonica with a local smooth jazz  
r/b band about 5 years ago - the only white guy. Many accents and phrases 
happen  or begin on the last sixteenth note of a bar, anticipating the downbeat of 
the  next measure. In order for me to "find" the timing/phrasing, I started 
counting  beats in my head and trying to land my fingers on the piano at that 
last  sixteenth note. Everyone else in the band rolled their eyes and told me I 
just  had to "feel it" rather than "count it". It took a while before I 
crossed over  to trusting the feeling instead of counting the time. When I "got it", 
it  liberated a large part of my creativity, as I didn't have to spend all 
that  energy counting. I could spend all my time listening and feeling. 
 
The Iceman
 
 
In a message dated 1/22/2008 2:25:50 A.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
gpopenoe@xxxxxxxxx writes:

Let's  talk phrasing and how to listen and about the spaces in between  
the  notes. What kind of place does my head have to be in to play those   
three notes as well as Big Walter  did?





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