Re: [Harp-L] Why am I killing the 4-blow reed so quickly?

[Joe and Cass Leone <leone@xxxxxxxx>]

On Aug 30, 2009, at 9:02 PM, icemanle@xxxxxxx wrote:

> really? full bodied doesn't particularly mean HEAVY. Are we talking  
> about two different things here?

No, we are talking about the same thing. You play full bodied. Others  
simply play too hard. There's no reason for that. Just because  
someone is blowing their guts out, doesn't mean it's good. Far too  
many people in this day and age think that blasting the hell out of  
everything is cool. Well it ain't.

I was overhearing the wife's i-pod as she was in her sewing room.  
There was a tune by Tommy Dorsey. Yeah, I know, he's just some old  
fart from the 30s. Well, lemme tell you, his trombone sent shivers  
down my spine. I had forgotten how good he was. Soft and smoothe. It  
was art in it's purest form.
Then a few minutes later came this screaming jerk. It curdled my  
blood and I had to leave the house and go outside. Just a bunch of  
screaming and a background band that had that annoying ba-da ba-da  
shuffle loud drum beat. The kind that makes your heart go out of  
time. Who was it, you ask. Well this may not be politically correct,  
but it was Bruce Springsteen.

Whaaaaaaa a bunch of crap. This is what I'm talking about. Everyone  
yaking and yaking about this and that and playing this crap and that  
crap. When is everyone gonna wise up and play REAL. I guess it's a  
sign of the times. What happened to dressing real? Everyone walking  
around trying to see how shi**y they can look. Why? To attract  
attention? Well ya got mine. Then there's the school of 'How many  
freaking pieces of hardware can I inject in my facial orifices and if  
I don't have enough, I can make more'.

Oooh, let's see if I can wear this really really scary freaky weird  
hairdo. Ooooh, let's see how many filthy words I can jam into my  
neanderthal vocabulary. Here's the deal. Throw away all those lesson  
plans that talk about 3rds 5ths maj7ths dim aug 9ths, minor  
whatchamacallits and just play the harp. FEEL it, LIVE it. BREATHE  
it. LOVE it. CARESS it. Jesus.......quit making it so hard.

smo-joe
>  I bend, hold, add vibrato, have been doing so for many years and  
> haven't had any reeds killed on any of my harmonicas. I don't use  
> force, but finesse and control. Granted, most players of diatonic  
> haven't embraced the finesse not force aspect, but that doesn't  
> mean that it isn't valid.