[Harp-L] Positions Playing

["sam blancato" <samblancato@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I thought Steve Baker's comments were pretty interesting and it leads me to
a couple of questions or comments about playing by ear.  I guess I think it
has to do thinking/playing styles, or even one's learning style. 

First of all, it sounds to me like you are describing is just playing by ear
rather than playing by applying syntax/grammar rules of the different modes
to your playing.  You're talking about playing by instinctually knowing what
will work with a given groove, be it "Help Me" or "Nobody's Business if I
Do".  Are you talking about playing wholly with the left side of your brain?
Is that what you mean when you say you aren't Greek?  If that's what you're
saying than I completely agree with you. And the last part about the goal of
ear training being ultimately to serve the song - I completely agree with
that too.  

This is the way I learned to play the three positions that I know and am
real comfortable in, completely by ear. I learn everything I do completely
by ear.  I believe that for blues and other more basic generic song forms
(and by generic I mean that they follow conventions of a genera, not that
they are generic like the cheapest toothpaste in the store) are best learned
by ear and learning to play and improvise to this music is best done mostly
by ear.  So one has to be a really good listener and spend a lot of time
listening; not just playing.  Maybe you are like me and play mostly with the
left side of your brain.  Sometimes I read posts on this list about theory
and I feel like I'm really missing out on something by not really being too
up on any of this stuff.  And I probably am missing out too but I must
really have a disconnect in my corpus-collosum because my right brain
doesn't get too involved, or at least not as involved as it does for others.

But see, for some people the theory really glues it altogether.  I knew a
player locally (he's recently moved out of the area) who always knew what
note he was playing, what scale it was in, what mode he was working in - all
that stuff.  His playing style was very different from mine.  He played
blues but it sort of sounded off the beaten path, long melody lines and very
little chord work, no tongue-blocking or octaves.  His stuff was always in
key but it often didn't work in terms of feel; it's like he hadn't tuned in
to the attitude or posture of the song.  He is a real 'right-brained' player
almost to the complete exclusion of the more intuitive left brain.  

I'm not saying that all right-brained players play like that but this guy
does.  I also know a guy, Frank Franz, a contributor to this list who seems
to have both sides of his brain completely involved; he knows what he's
playing not for note and digs the feel of it too, as it were.  

After talking a lot to this other guy though, about how he plays what he
plays I discovered a couple of things.  First his playing sounded so
esoteric not because he didn't understand the grove and the attitude of a
song but because he just didn't care too much about that.  It's like the
more instinctual aspect of playing is on the left side of the brain and even
the part that gets you to CARE about that part is there as well.  

For me, the primary way I come to a song and play to it is through feel and
instinct.  That is, when I'm not just 'rote memorizing' songs off records
;-)  .  I'm a left brain player - to a fault, literally. 

For some people I think it's the other way around though and they really do
get a better handle on things by way of the underlying theory.  They like
the Greek, it anchors things for them. 

Ultimately I'm prejudiced to the left brained approach and I think blues is
by-and-large left brained music.  Conjugating phrases in a given mode may be
a way to get to it but it's a round about way.  I believe all the great
players are or were left brained players.  Kim Wilson said in an interview
that blues what played from the hips.  I think this is what Mr. Baker is
talking about.

Or not.

Sam Blancato, Pittsburgh             






Steve Baker wrote:

"I'm perplexed about the necessity to comprehend the details of the
Dorian, Aeolian, and Phrygian minor modes, when I'm not Greek!
The 12th position on a ten hole harp also is kinda hard:
I use a single position, "harp in mouth" and instinctually play whatever
the music requires, on a harp suited to the guitarists' key.
I've played as a session harpist, so it works for me.

JJ Cale was once asked: "Did you learn any music theory?"
His reply "Yes, but not enough to damage my playing".

Erudition is a wonderful thing, when Art teachers meet, they talk
about Art;
but when artists meet, they talk about canvas and brushes.>

I imagine Cale had his tongue firmly in his cheek when he made the
above comment. Playing instinctually is without doubt also a
wonderful thing, but the term can cover a multitude of sins and I've
experienced many players claiming to do this who then proceeded to
trample all over the chord sequence while ignoring the modal
character of the song. Most of them didn't notice that they were
playing notes or phrases which clashed gratingly with the chords they
were supposed to be accompanying and which had little to do with the
melodic character of the song. I don't wish to imply that you do
this, Geoff, but it happens a lot and is one of the reasons why
"proper musicians" often hate harmonica players (forgive me for
repeating this pet rant, if it gets on peoples nerves then tell me to
shut up).

The idea of learning the scales which correspond to the most commonly
used positions on the harp is to be able to play notes and phrases
which fit to the song you're playing, either because they share the
same modal basis as the melody, or because they're more likely to
harmonize with the chords of that tune than the notes of a different,
less appropriate mode, due to the fact that they they share more
notes in common.

For example, on a tune like "Nobody's Business If I Do" it sounds
better if you avoid typical blues scale licks, because the song is
much too major both in the melody and in the chording for the
basically minor blues scale mode to sound pleasing. On the other
hand, phrasing based on the major pentatonic mode, in any position
you enjoy playing in, will sound much better integrated into this
song. Another example recently and frequently quoted here in Harp-L
is Sonny Boy's "Help Me", where the major pentatonic scale cannot
help but sound wrong (to my ears at least) due to the fundamentally
minor nature of the song. Of course if your ear is reliable enough
that you automatically take these things into account and play
accordingly then there's no necessity to be able to explain them in a
theoretical sense, but not many intuitive players succeed in doing
this on more than a limited range of material.

Ear training is a significant part of the process of learning to
select the appropriate mode/position/special tuning for any given
tune, but the basic rule is very simple: the song comes first and
your job is to serve it, so it's best to learn how it goes before you
start,

Steve"