Re: [Harp-L] Mojo, jamming, and related topics

[Jim Kelly <harp@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Abner Galdos wrote:
> Jim Kelly, not the famous Jim Kelly of the Enter the Dragon fame ?
No, nor is it the Jim Kelly of football.  My greatest claim to fame thus 
far appears to be playing the harp at a private karaoke session. :-)
> Jim you brought up an interesting topic regarding the Karaoke.
> I was under the impression that this was only for singer.
> I don't know much about Karaoke, do you still need a machine or just a 
> special cd.. and will this cd work on any player...
> as I typed the last sentence I think I answered my own question.
I don't know what the usual practice is.  At the private session I 
referred to, the host obviously allows me to play.  I have no idea 
whether that's an isolated occurrence or commonplace among karaoke 
operators.  I figure if nothing else, I could ask the host at the local 
karaoke if I could sing and then play during their own songs' 
instrumental breaks.  If it's like the private session, they'll have a 
few blues (or bluesy) standards from folks like Muddy Waters, BB King, 
Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughn, etc.  I'm not a great singer, but I'm 
no worse than many others I've heard at karaoke. 

One challenge is knowing what key the song is in and what key harp to 
have.  Right now I have A, C, D, F, and G.  The private session host can 
adjust the key a half-step at at time, and is tolerant enough to do that 
(it's trial and error) if I don't have the right key coming in.  I don't 
know whether other hosts have the hardware or the tolerance for that.  
If I'm allowed to sing and play something from the karaoke inventory, 
then I figured I'd I could at least show up one night, check the list, 
find something I know, then go home to research the song and its key on 
the web (and practice a bit).  Then go back next time to sing and play.

As for the technical side of things, I can't say too much there either, 
other than what I've seen at the private session.  The machine the host 
has can play regular CDs and load music from them.  As I understand it, 
karaoke music files also include a companion file to display lyrics, but 
if I'm playing to a conventional song with vocals off my own CD, I don't 
need the lyrics. 

Jim