Re: [Harp-L] personal epiphany - was re: Sounds like Harmonica

[Seth Galitzer <sethgali@xxxxxxxxx>]

The path of this discussion I am finding very interesting.  It sounds 
like what people are saying is not necessarily a harp-only thing, but a 
musicianship in general thing.  I play in a 7-piece band.  That's a lot 
of people to squeeze onto a stage (at least in the dives we play in). 
It also means a lot of sound if everybody isn't listening carefully and 
adjusting as they go.  If somebody is playing a solo, the rest of us 
know it's time to back off and give them space (even, ahem, the harp 
player).  If I'm not singing, I'm playing sax riffs, and know when to 
shut the heck up.

I think it has more to do with being aware of what's going on around you 
than what instrument you're playing.  I know I'm new to this, but maybe 
harp players just have bigger egos than other musicians so it bears 
extra discussion.  I highly doubt this, personally. :)

I'll listen to anybody good, no matter what they play.  (Krummhorn 
ensemble may be an exception to that rule.)  And any good player should 
know when to step away from the mic.

Seth

Bradford Trainham wrote:
> The parallel between conversation style and treatment of one's instrument is
> intriguing to me.  I find long-winded conversationalists seem to fall into
> two types.
> One has a difficult time getting to the proper word or phrase that best
> expresses what he/she wants to say.
> The other has a hard time honoring the personal aural space of the other
> hapless participant in the conversation. 
> To try to draw the parallel, for the first type, imagine me in a lesson with
> Michael Rubin wherein he has me attempting to improvise a solo in say fifth
> position Dorian on a C harp on top of a Band-In-A-Box progression.
> I'm on a safe note...  The proverbial clock is ticking.. But there's a
> lag/disconnect between my musical intuition's sending the right signal to
> the part of the brain capable of propelling me to the next note and the part
> of the brain that attempts to police my conduct from within the particular
> constraints of the scale. 
> For the second type of conversationalist's parallel in the harp world,
> consider any "Gus"... Or any harp player at a jam who can't stop to
> accommodate a singer or other instrumentalist.
> I guess what we might get from this artificial comparison is that while we
> tend to think of solos as our moments to shine as individuals, we're still,
> in the best cases parts of musical conversations and we'd do well to
> properly consider the musicians we're temporarily asking to assume a
> background role while we "make our point"...
> Brad (What did you say?  I wasn't listening!!) Trainham
>  
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: harp-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx [mailto:harp-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf
> Of Tim Moyer
> Sent: Friday, October 24, 2008 9:14 AM
> To: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Re: [Harp-L] personal epiphany - was re: Sounds like Harmonica
>
> Iceman wrote:
> > The  problem was in her delivery - she is a high energy person and 
> > once she started  talking, it was a non-stop stream of words, almost 
> > like she could circular  breathe while talking. There were no spaces 
> > or pauses between her ideas. It just  kept coming relentlessly. I 
> > found that my brain turned off after about 15 minutes.
>
> I got a piece of advice about parenting that applies here, and also to
> music: the more you say, the less they hear.  This was intended to advise a
> parent to keep their speeches to their children consise and to the point,
> but the same principle can be applied to music.  You might think that by
> playing more you're saying more, but the truth is that your audience is
> probably hearing less.  
>
> Guilty as charged...
>
> -tim


--
The beatings will continue until morale has improved.