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

[Benoît FELTEN <benoit.felten@xxxxxxxxx>]

I won't deny there are some out there who see the harp as a toy and don't
even bother to understand the instrument (Alanis Morissette, anyone ?)

But I think seasoned harp players also forget sometimes that one of the
wonders of the instrument is that it allows simple yet effective playing.
Complexity and:or technical mastery is not - in my humble opinion - vital to
produce good music with the harmonica.

Unlike some here, I happen to think that listening to all the great blues
guys and only the great blues guys is more likely to make your music stale
than it is to make it good.

Adam Gussow once said to me "at some point, you've got to learn how to kill
the father", and I think I agree with him. Unfortunately, perhaps because we
have so few role models, us harmonica players tend to respect the few
fathers we have too much...

I guess my point was just to say that some musicians that have the harp as a
secondary instrument sound fresher to me than many big names on the
harmonica scene, and I wondered if I was the only one...

(About Mayall, I don't find him all that atrocious. I don't find him
brilliant either, but I think he plays with gusto. What if some of his bends
are inaccurate? Is this blues or is this blues ? ;-)

(About G. Love, I totally agree that he's good (and I love his stuff) but I
still think (or maybe think I hear) him approaching this as someone who
spent hours noodling around rather than as someone who spent hours picking
up Little Walter solos...)

Benoit

2010/1/18 Larry Marks <larry.marks@xxxxxxxxxxxx>

> I still have a big problem with musicians who think of the harmonica as a
> toy noisemaker that doesn't need practice. I am constantly amazed at the
> high regard in which perfectly miserable players (who should know better)
> are held.
>
> For example, a bluesman whom I otherwise respect greatly is John Mayall.
> Mr. Mayall cannot or does not want to play harmonica. In any event, he
> shouldn't.
>
> That having been said, I agree that many harmonica players, with their
> inferiority complex switched on full, play far too much. Inferiority
> complex? Sure. I suffer from it as well. I know that our instrument is
> regarded as a toy by many and I feel the constant need to prove that it is a
> real instrument. I have to work hard to keep myself from playing too much.
>
>  -LM
>
>
> Benoît FELTEN wrote:
>
>> 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.
>>
>>
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-- 
Benoît FELTEN (http://twitter.com/fiberguy)
www.fiberevolution.com
www.musicalramblings.com
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