Re: [Harp-L] re: personal epiphany harmonicky etc--now rock harp

[Mike Fugazzi <mfugazzi67@xxxxxxxxx>]

Sent: Friday, October 24, 2008 8:59:00 AM
Subject: R: [Harp-L] re: personal epiphany harmonicky etc--now rock harp


Not every song has to be a huge jam session.  I front my own band and don't even play harp on all the songs.  Often times, we post and share songs that feature lots of harp.  For example, I have a three minute solo up on YouTube for the song Whippin' Post.  To put the clip into context, it was the last song of the night and a big jam tune for us.  It was by far the longest solo I took that night.  To contrast, I have a clip of a song where my solo is just a few bars.  There isn't a lot of flash or anything wanky...however it is in 11th position.

Time and place are very important.  Listen to Derek Trucks.  He does it all.  I'd argue that he doesn't decide if how he's going to play a song...he lets the song tell him what he should play.  

I fancy myself a rock player first and blues second.  I do play a lot of notes at times, but only when it fits the song.  I cover a few Blues Traveler tunes and although I can play that style, I don't on those tunes.  I just hear them differently than Popper.

Finally, IMO, rock music is harder to play than blues if you want it to be.  I mean in terms of applying music theory.  Of course you can just stick to the same old pentatonics, but it is easier for me to learn to be a diverse musician in a rock setting.

 Mike Fugazzi
Vocals/Harmonica
"The Mike Fugazzi Band"
http://www.myspace.com/mikefugazzi
http://www.youtube.com/user/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 music, if only it is rightly understood."
-Hazrat Inayat Khan




________________________________
From: mfugazzi67 <mfugazzi67@xxxxxxxxx>
To: mfugazzi67@xxxxxxxxx
Sent: Friday, October 24, 2008 8:49:32 AM
Subject: Fwd:  R: [Harp-L] re: personal epiphany harmonicky etc--now rock harp

--- In harp-l-archives@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "Riccardo Grosso - RGBand"
<riccardogrosso@...> wrote:

Well I think I got your point. And I can't say you are wrong. I agree with
you. I use to give some harmonica lessons, and a lot of people come to me
saying "I want to play harmonica like Bob Dyland" or "I want to study
harmonica because it's simple" and then they start to make noise with this
wonderful instrument and when they hit the stage they can't stop playing
covering everybody: the other musicians, the air of the music, the
feelings
and everything. Then they start to play some blues or rock or whatever
pretending that "more they do, best they are!". That's pure shit. You
don't
need to be fast, you don't need to be loud, you don't need to do more. All
you need is doing the right stuff in the right place. You play the
blues all
day long and one day a rock band call you to play? Well, try to listen
what's going on and play the right stuff for that situation. That's the
point. Nobody wants to hear the fastest harp player in the West.
People want
hear good music. That's my opinion.

Cheers.
Riccardo Grosso - Harmonica Player & Singer
www.myspace.com/riccardogrossoharmonicaplayersinger

-----Messaggio originale-----
Da: harp-l-bounces@... [mailto:harp-l-bounces@...] Per conto
di jim.alciere@...
Inviato: Thursday, October 23, 2008 6:57 PM
A: harp-l@...
Oggetto: [Harp-L] re: personal epiphany harmonicky etc--now rock harp

The problem with rock harmonica is there are people who think they can
play
harmonica even though they don't have any training and never practice.
There's also folks that usually play blues and when they're confronted
with
a different genre they resort to just playing fast, repetitive, and
hard--mostly because it's easy.

Now there's nothing wrong with easy, and there's nothing wrong with loud,
hard, and fast  but there's an art to playing it. Spend some time
listening
to the old soul records like the Isley Brothers or Funkadelics where
there's
some killer shredding guitar--but  the guitarist waits, steps in, says his
piece, then steps out.  Listen to Butterfield play on East West. He's the
band leader, the headliner, but he gives a lot of room to Bloomfield and
Naftalin.Also listen to how Hendrix played a melody--beautiful and
sweet and
every once in awhile the aliens land, there's machine guns and jet bombers
and crazy stuff--but there's the melody.

Another different but equally valid technique is to strip the music
down to
the bare bone basics.Listen to the Stooges, the Velvet Underground, the MC
5, Jonathon Richmond and the Modern Lovers ,and Stiff Little Fingers for
some ideas on how to play hard rhythmic music. Harp is tailored made
to play
this kind of music. Keep it very very simple and double up with the rhythm
guitarist. I like playing octaves when I do garage band stuff.

Until you can play with the fluidity of a Carlos Santana, a Duane
Allman, a
Jason Ricci, or a John Popper, you're better off leaving the audience
wanting more.

--
Rainbow Jimmy
http://www.spaceanimals.com
http://www.myspace.com/theelectricstarlightspaceanimals
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