[Harp-L] Rick Davis : Sonny Terry

[SONNYTONE@xxxxxxx]

Hi Rick, there are no tongue pull offs in his rhythmic playing, he did not  
TB anything when he played his rhythms. What he did was so fast and clean it 
may  have sounded like that, but I was honestly given hours worth a day of 
lessons  for two years, along with listening to him live for that period of time. 
If  anyone on this list was at our 2004  Tone Seminar at Dave Barrett's  
Masterclass, I think I broke down Sonny's style enough to have them  understand what 
he actually did. Your mouth, tongue and cavity must be  completely relaxed, 
the air must escape out of the sides of your mouth and nose,  and you must be 
able to explode with his signature middle of the harp wailing  which I have 
down pretty much pat during any fills he did while accompanying  Brownie. 
Whooping on a single note is one thing, but he would actually vocally  call out the 
actual line he would have played on the harp, ending up with the  note on the 
harp where he would have if he played the riff, rather than singing  it. There 
are many varieties of his whooping other than just the single one  which is 
easy to get. 
To just add hopefully a final note to the TB/LP thing, I  was right there in 
front of Kim and could not tell which he was doing  both by watching his mouth 
and also listening to his licks. So to try and  decipher from a record of 
late greats what they did I feel would be a waste  of time. Practice both styles 
well, work on your TB as one lister was completely  right, TB will open up 
your mouth cavity and force you if you are doing it  right, to have the air 
pulled in from a deeper place than just LP> But  once you have that down, with 
vibrato, you will find that our LP will  now come from the same place, so it will 
improve your LP to be an  accomplished TB'er. I know it helped me 
tremendously. Make sure your bends TB or  precise, Kim's 2 and 3 holes are the staple of 
his style. If you listen closely,  he always is there during whatever run he is 
doing. Either with the   fully bent, two bends, one bend or just natural, 
same with the two draw. And  your 3 blow is your best friend when trying to keep 
up with what he is  doing. One of the best CD's I listen to of Kim's is his 
session  with Jimmy Rogers called Ludella. Kim used one of those 60's  
Silvertone 1432's with the knobs that go up and down along the front  of the amp. GREAT 
tone and playing on every song. 
Hopefully we can put this one to rest, as it will all be personal choice,  
just practice both styles in your practice time and don't squeeze your  cheeks 
to get bends with TB, which is a natural thing to do if one  is purely a LP 
player. Drop your jaw and open up your mouth and pull with  your throat and 
diaphram is how I was taught to do it.  Sincerely.  Sonny Jr. 
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