[Harp-L] Re: Feeling the Groove

[Larry Wayne <lwayne58@xxxxxxxxx>]

Blues originates with the African slaves, many of whom led lives of horror
beyond our abilities imagine. Music, particularly rhythmic music, allowed
them a temporary escape. It was a significant survival strategy. While
working in the fields or during moments of leisure, the communal experience
of musical rhythms provided relief from the horrors and indignities of slave
life.

The way to infuse rhythm into playing music is to allow it to penetrate and
infuse us in a physical as well as a psychic sense, to temporarily lose our
selves through it. We can never recreate the absolute necessity of doing
this as the slaves did, but we can, I believe, immerse ourselves in it to
the point where it can't help but emerge through our playing.

There are times when we all need to have a sense of moving beyond the self.
It is in drawing upon this need while we are playing that allows us to feel
the rhythms.