[Harp-L] funk style blues

["John F. Potts" <hvyj@xxxxxxx>]

Jay,

A couple of ideas/suggestions:

Don't necessarily restrict yourself to playing blues over the funk  
grooves.  It's primarily a rhythmic thing, so cop the groove and go  
with the flow.  Short repeating phrases sometimes work. Keep it  
simple and throw in little variations for flavor, but focus on  
keeping the groove. You actually don't need to play anything  
elaborate if the groove is solid. Punctuate rather than elaborate.   
Less is more. In music, repetition is not a fault, but an aesthetic  
device.  This concept applies in spades when you're playing funk.

Keyboard players playing synths with seventies funk bands can provide  
you with a wealth of ideas for more sophisticated soloing over funk  
grooves.  Bernie Worrell is one name that comes to mind (Parliament)-- 
arguably the funkiest keyboard player on the planet.  Also, you can  
listen to the keyboard playing on "You Dropped a Bomb on Me" by The  
Gap Band for this style (I don't know who the keyboard player is).  A  
lot of this type of stuff I've just heard on the radio and i can't  
readily name the bands or musicians, but this style of synth playing  
translates pretty well to harp if you stay open minded and GO WITH  
THE GROOVE.  it's a rhythmic thing. It's not so much about what notes  
you play it's where you put them and when you play them. Melody isn't  
very important and DON'T FORCE FEED PRECONCEIVED LICKS if they don't  
fit the groove.  You can actually be pretty uninhibited about what  
you play so long as you can cop the groove, play with economy and  
stay with the repetitive rhythmic nature of the groove.

I don't know if any of this makes sense.  I can do it better than i  
can explain it.  But i hope it gives you some ideas.

FWIW.

JP