RE: [Harp-L] What other instruments do you play? - Understanding harmony

[Winslow Yerxa <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>]

Paying a chordal instrument is important to understanding the harmony against which you improvise, so your study of guitar is a very good idea.

once or twice I've brought new jazz harmonica players to the attention of Toots Thielemans. The first question he asks is, "Does he play a chordal instrument?" He feels that he can hear in an improviser's playing whether or not that improviser has an understanding of harmony gained from actually playing chord progressions.

Winlsow

Winslow Yerxa

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

--- On Mon, 10/26/09, Jérôme P. <peyrelevade@xxxxxxx> wrote:

From: Jérôme P. <peyrelevade@xxxxxxx>
Subject: RE: [Harp-L] What other instruments do you play?
To: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
Date: Monday, October 26, 2009, 6:50 AM

I play guitar. I don't really care about becoming a guitarist, but I find it
very useful to understand chords, listen to each particular chord color,
chord progressions, ... In fact, I play a bit of guitar only to improve my
harp playing.

Not like some others who chose to be real multi instrumentalists, like H.
Levy, Toots, Sebastien Charlier, ...
BTW, Sebastien Charlier plays many different wind instruments (flute,
soprano sax, ...), including an uncommon one I love : a wind controller (he
has been demonstrator for Yamaha in Europe).
It is a sort of midi saxophone. The sound is produced each time a finger
approaches a hole, thanks to an induction system.
You'll find an example here:
http://www.sebcharlier.com/videos.php
then click on " BONUS TRACK SEB WX5 SOLO".

Best regards,

Jerome
http://www.youtube.com/JersiMuse



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