Re: [Harp-L] re: Will Scarlett and my overblowing journey

[michael rubin <michaelrubinharmonica@xxxxxxxxx>]

I debated sending this.  I hope I will not hurt any feelings.  I have
great respect for all people mentioned in the text.

I spent around 5 years busting my behind on being able play in any key
on the diatonic.  On my website on the information page and on Youtube
you can see a video of me playing a 12 bar blues with Jimi Lee.  Every
12 bars we up the song a half step in key.  I did the song on a Bb
standard tuned special 20, certainly not equal tuned.  I call the tune
"The Parlor Trick" to show my awareness that playing in this fashion
is less of a musicality thing and more of a "see what can be done?"
thing.

At SPAH that year it was incredibly well received.  I have done it at
other harp shows to big approval.

At the first Jason Ricci's Rocking in the Rockies seminar I was a
teacher as well as Chris Michalek and Jason.  Chris had just written a
diatribe on harp-l about hating the Parlor trick type of playing and,
to paraphrase, saying, "Anyone who tries to play in all 12 keys on a
diatonic is an ego guy".  He knew I had done the Parlor Trick at SPAH
and I thought he was calling me out just before we were both to be
teachers together.  I talked with him about it before I went onstage
at the Rockies teacher performance show, then while onstage dedicated
the song to him.  I thought I was being clever and that we both would
think it was funny.  But I must admit some element of chest banging
was probably going on.  Chris and I have had some friction before and
since so if that added to things Chris, I am sorry.  You're OK in my
book, I don't care what I say about you. ;)

Then I called out the song WAY too slow and it was one of those
nightmarish songs that drags on forever and bores everyone including
me.  Yow.

Then Wally Peterman gave me the video that is available on my website
and Youtube of the SPAH parlor trick performance.  I put in on
Youtube.  I was amazed by the amount of flak I got about how bad I am
as a player.  There is another Youtube video, this one the final jam
between Chris, Jason and I at the Rockies and again, I was not even
close to the top of my game and man, was I slammed by youtube viewers.

I try and chalk that up to anonymity bringing out the harsh critics,
but some of what they say is true.  During the Parlor trick I was off
pitch sometimes. During Jason, Chris and my playing I was not doing so
well.  I have to put on my recordings I have made thru the years to
remind myself that I can play well most of the time.

When I first started going to SPAH, it was in Dallas around 7 years
ago.  I was deep into the fully chromatic diatonic concept.  It was
more than just a parlor trick to me.  I was going to develop my own
style, a bluesier style than Howard, a more avant garde style than Del
Junco.  Yet I was still fascinated by more traditonal ways of playing
and not just in blues.  I liked, and still like, to join in any
musical situation and play in a very traditional manner, while still
putting a spark of excitement into what I do.

As I went to SPAH for every year since Dallas but one, I discovered
that my "parlor trick" side was all that was showing up.  The other
side wasn't getting noticed.  I believe I know what was happening.  It
was not about impressing other people as much as it was creating some
variety from the endless cross harp solos at the blues jam.  After 40
people played cross harp, it was time for some 9th position!  (Some of
that cross harp kicked butt)  I began to feel like my reputation was
as the avant garde weird player whose music may be interesting, but
unlikable. For the last few SPAH's I made a concerted effort to focus
on cross harp in the blues jams.  I still could not control having my
solos be humor based.  I love entertaining as much or more as I love
playing beautiful music.

This also coincided with the Rockies and youtube situations.  I began
to wonder if being a fully chromatic diatonic player was worth the
effort.  Also, I was becoming obsessed with the bass harp and the
mandolin.  True overblow mastery takes lots and lots of time.

I still kept up some studies for a while, including arpeggiating the
heck out of rhythm changes in the first 6 positions.  I performed
"I've Got  Rhythm" at SPAH a couple of years back and two of my
toughest critics said nice things and well as overwhelming public
approval.  Even today I found myself playing 5th position blues for a
few songs.

I wouldn't have traded my years of striving for chromatic mastery on
the diatonic for anything.  Musically it really improved my sense of
intervals and their functions.  I also believe that part of the
problem with the parlor trick is that it was all done with the 12 bar
blues form.  Not every position shines in blues, but I believe every
position shines in some style of music.  By exploring the different
positions in every style of music I play on a regular basis, I
discovered some wonderful music I would not have discovered any other
way.

I also believe part of my role and I hope every musician's role in
society is to be a mad scientist, exploring deeper into what Levy
calls your own little corner of infinity.  I also believe it is
important to present these new ideas to the public even if they are
not fully formed and sound questionable to listeners.  One never knows
how much time one has on earth.  If I do not share my half-formed
ideas with the public, then another musician cannot get inspired to
take my ideas, combine them with his own and carry them out to
fruition where it sounds great.

This is what I believe is the importance of Will Scarlett.  I haven't
heard the Wolfgang's Vault's music, but I have heard the two Hot Tuna
CD's.  He often sounds out of tune and to me his ideas are not always
cohesive.  I do not like his playing on those CDs.  However, I know
those CDs sold many copies because Hot Tuna was a brother band to the
Jefferson Airplane.  Harp players MUST have heard them!  If I was a
harp player in 1969, pre-Levy's Harmonica Jazz, I would have gone
crazy with excitement at what I heard Scarlett do.  The overblows are
very obviously notes that other harp players were not playing.  There
is nothing subtle about it.  He was playing using a full chromatic
scale.  True, I did not think it sounded good, but still,
revolutionary!

Then a small group of performers started overblowing and the hundredth
monkey principle may have had the effect of enabling Levy to
"discover" overblows.  Then around 1985, as I understand it, he puts
out Harmonica Jazz and revolutionizes the instrument.  Now it sounds
good to me.  Would the current incarnation of Levy exist without
Scarlett?  I doubt it.

My point is, I might not have gotten to a fully formed concept on
chromatic diatonic playing, but my inspiration may lead someone else
to do it.

My sadness comes from a suspicion that if I continued to work as hard
as I originally did at the technique, I would be a great player in
that style today.  I feel like I let other's opinions deter me from
realizing a musical dream.  I am not dead yet though.  But at this
point, I am not hearing the beauty of chromatic diatonic playing like
I used to, so a redelving into that practice seems unlikely.

Who knows what the future holds?  Thanks for reading.
Michael Rubin
Michaelrubinharmonica.com


On 11/13/09, MundHarp@xxxxxxx <MundHarp@xxxxxxx> wrote:
> << martinoldsberg@xxxxxxxxx writes:
>
> Can I be  the only one disturbed by what sounds as if he´s out of tune most
> of  the time?
> >>
>
> SADLY not.
>
> NO DISRESPECT intended, to a fantastic musician, and a very  clever
> harmonica player!
>
> One of the problems of people playing their "one diatonic does all  keys"
> amazing stuff, is the standard "just intonation" tuning...
> "Equal temperament" tuning partly cures this, but then any chord playing AT
>  ALL usually sounds out of tune as well.
>
> Some players music mostly puts my teeth on edge, because I was blessed  by
> being born with perfect pitch. Most people simply can't hear the discordant
> notes!
>
> No easy answer.
>
> I mostly play my diatonic harps in "2nd position" My  harmonicas are always
> tuned with that in mind!
> Sure, my playing can improve, and I hope it shall improve! But if I  have a
> complex tune to play, I reach for a chromatic harmonica to play it on.
>
> And, yes... I have at least one "270" Super Chromonica, just intonation
> tuned, and maximised for "1st position" playing, available in EVERY major key.
>
> They are simply  the tools of my trade...
>
> I remember a car mechanic who fixed anything on any car with just a hammer,
>  a screw driver, and a few adjustable wrenches..
> Did that make him a great mechanic?
> NO. Of course not.
>
> I don't care if I am "cheating", by obtaining the best (for me)
> optimisation of my instruments.... I only care about the sound of my music, not  how
> "clever I am" to overcome the obscure techniques. I am not a technical
> player. Never wanted to be.
>
> I love the sound of an IN TUNE and well played instrument... It  is THE
> SOUND that the musician makes that is really all that matters.
>
> It is amazing how the diatonic harmonica has developed chromatically over
> the past 20 years. Many people have pushed the boundaries, and do stuff that
>  would have been thought "impossible" not long ago.
>
> But OH SO OFTEN... Those ...."almost" ... the right notes, simply put  my
> teeth on edge!
>
> I guess there are "many roads to Jerusalem"....
>
> All the best
>
> John "Whiteboy" Walden
> Cebu City
> Republic of the Philippines.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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