RE: [Harp-L] Casual Harmonica players...

["Bradford Trainham" <bradford.trainham@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

For me, when I hear something I like on the harp that isn't technical, it's
more a testimony to musicianship/musical understanding than it is
specifically an example of harp technique.
I like all the chordy/folk-rock people so often lambasted on this list.
An extremely simplistic harp part I heard in a song the other day (Kathleen
Edwards - The Cheapest Key) was perfect for her song.
She's a singer-songwriter/guitarist, but that little strident harp part just
set the song off as was her intent.
 Brad Trainham


-----Original Message-----
From: harp-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx [mailto:harp-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf
Of Benoît FELTEN
Sent: Monday, January 18, 2010 9:56 AM
To: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [Harp-L] Casual Harmonica players...

Something I wanted to share with the list.

With age, I'm starting to realise that more and more I enjoy the harmonica
playing of casual players. Sometimes I like it even more than the harp
playing of many "pro" players.

I guess I should clarify what I mean by casual harmonica player. By that I
mean musicians whose approach of the harp is as a secondary instrument. Pro
musicians who would not describe themselves as harmonica players.

A few examples could maybe help clarify what I mean:

- G. Love of G. Love and Special Sauce is a great example. He plays a decent
harp, but you can hear that he rarely if ever practiced. Now he still sounds
very good (not too sloppy, I guess), but he sticks to relatively simple
stuff. The thing is it's always effective and very often quite inventive as
well.

- Ben Ellman of Galactic is another good case in point. Ellman is a killer
sax player who doubles on harp occasionally. Now he usually vamps and rarely
(if ever) uses the harp to play melody, but he's got a ton of energy and
(again) in my opinion dares things that more seasoned harp players in
general wouldn't.

I asked myself why these guys' playing appealed to me. And I think the
reason is intent. Too often maybe, a harmonica player feels obliged to play
something because, after all, he's the harp player. And while that something
may sound good and be played with great chops, it doesn't always add to the
song. When these guys whip the harp out, it's because it's the right thing
to play for this particular song at this particular moment. I dunno, it's
just a theory, but that's how I feel it.

Now this raises a secondary question which is, collectively, do we harp
players have an ego problem ? I listen to a lot of sax, to make that
parralel, and it seems to me that sax players don't feel the need to play
all the time, especially sax sidemen.

Maybe it's misperception on my part, but I thought it would be interesting
to discuss and also highlight other examples of non-pro harp players that
sound great...

--
Benoît FELTEN (http://twitter.com/fiberguy) www.fiberevolution.com
www.musicalramblings.com www.apprentiphotographe.com
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