Re: [Harp-L] "A-Train"

[Winslow Yerxa <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>]

The back-and-forth leaps in A-train are dead easy and play very smoothly if you use tongue-switching.

Winslow

Winslow Yerxa

Author, Harmonica For Dummies ISBN 978-0-470-33729-5

--- On Sat, 2/21/09, Jonathan Ross <jross38@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
From: Jonathan Ross <jross38@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [Harp-L] "A-Train"
To: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
Date: Saturday, February 21, 2009, 1:17 PM

WVa Bob writes:

"Several months ago there was a thread concerning the difficulty of
playing the head of "Take the A Train"...I think J.R. Ross may have
initiated it?"


I don't recall who started it, but I was certainly involved.  The head is
all-but impossible to play on the harmonica, IMO.  You can hit the notes, but it
doesn't sound good.  I practiced this for a few months straight, and
couldn't get it anywhere I was happy with.  Fortunately, I'm in good
company.  Les Thompson is a fantastic chromatic player (blows me away) but if
you listen to just the head on his recording of "A-Train" I think
you'd have to agree that he is struggling mightily and is either just barely
pulling it off or just can't quite get there, depending on one's
reaction.  He is able to hide behind the sax pretty well, and so it doesn't
end up detracting all that much from the song's opening.  Interestingly, he
is able to get it better at the end of the song than the beginning--I'd say
the opening he's just missing it, and at the end he's barely hitting
it--barely.  This is the best version I've heard by far, and it's still
obviously difficult--it sounds just out of the instrument's range, like
he's fighting against his axe.

But, all that aside, it's a truly excellent practice piece, if you
don't get too discouraged (and don't abuse listeners with it).  The very
difficulty of the leaps and jumps and trying to both play at speed and swing
will help you improve on other less difficult songs.  I often find practicing
something nigh-impossible ends up making the stuff that was just damn hard feel
so much easier.  Also, it's useful to try it in other positions than the key
it's in.  I think I decided that Bb on a C chromatic (12th position) was a
bit better.  But not by much.

Hope this helps--and I'd suggest trying to find the original thread in the
archives, as I seem to recall other versions were mentioned.



 ()()    JR "Bulldogge" Ross
()  ()
`----'



_______________________________________________
Harp-L is sponsored by SPAH, http://www.spah.org
Harp-L@xxxxxxxxxx
http://harp-l.org/mailman/listinfo/harp-l