Re: [Harp-L] Stevie Diatonic on "Sweet Little Girl"

[Winslow Yerxa <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>]

Jonthan - 

You're right, that tune is on diatonic. At a
distaince of several decades, I remember that it was on a failry
high-pitched harp, perhaps an E harp, and played in second position. It
was the first time I knew that he played diatonic.

Stevie has also recorded some extended and fairly daventuriurous diatonic solos with Herbie Hancock on "Steppin' in It" on Herbie Hancock's man_child album, and in various other places, including a Kiss album.

Winslow Yerxa

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

--- On Sun, 5/24/09, Jonathan Metts <prairiedogpr@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

From: Jonathan Metts <prairiedogpr@xxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [Harp-L] Stevie Diatonic on "Sweet Little Girl"
To: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
Date: Sunday, May 24, 2009, 9:42 PM

I don't own very many Stevie Wonder albums (yet), so the only song I knew that he played diatonic on was "Boogie On Reggae Woman". But listening to "Sweet Little Girl" from the Music of My Mind album, his playing has a lot of diatonic characteristics -- can anyone confirm?

The harp part is almost dissonant at times, yet it comes back to mimic the melody at key moments, which is very satisfying. Stevie is using a lot of trill effects, and at one point it even sounds like he is kissing the harp for a staccato sound (the coincident lyrics are also about kissing).

This doesn't seem to be a famous song, but it's pretty interesting. Stevie alternates between his normal (read: superhuman) voice and an extremely deep growl, and he's playing extremely short harp licks in the background, right over the vocals, throughout the song. The lyrics even refer to his harmonica towards the end. If you like Stevie's more experimental harp material and haven't heard this song, I say check it out.

Jonathan Metts
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