Re: [Harp-L] Harmonica + Vibraphone; Please let me know what you think!

[Richard Hunter <turtlehill@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

"Sam Friedman" wrote:
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THJm77yQo8k
>
> Playing in Eb on a C diatonic. Let me know what you guys think!

A few comments:

First, the musicianship on display here is terrific.  Most people would be proud to play either one of the instruments you're playing here at this level. The melodic ideas are solid, and the whole thing swings hard.  You are obviously very talented and very, very skilled.  

Second, I like the video within the video thing.  Put a different colored sheet behind you for each of the video windows and it's ready for prime time.

Okay, now for the more difficult stuff. I've been listening to chromatic playing on the diatonic via overblowing for decades now, and there are very few players who can overcome some of the inherent limitations.  I quote Brendan Power from his book "Introduction to the Powerbender:"

"While many can pop out a rough overblow or two, only a handful of players around the world (probably fewer than 50 by 2010) have mastered all the overblows and overdraws to the extent that they sound seamlessly fluent (indistinguishable from other notes, consistently in tune & musically pleasing)."

Brendan, of course, does not do a lot of overblowing, if any, so his bias is evident (as is mine).  His comments were echoed on this list by the late Chris Michalek a few years ago, in a post in which he said that after years of overblowing, he'd come to the conclusion that a lot of overblown notes were "weak" and to be avoided.   

Anyway, I hear a lot of out of tune notes in this performance, and it's especially noticeable on the head choruses.  It's a problem that I've heard over and over again, for more than two decades, from overblowers, and it's most noticeable when a piece is performed in a key that's pretty far removed from the key of the harmonica (as you do here).  This isn't the worst I've heard in that respect by a long shot--a certain performance of "Sunny" by a recently well-known player comes to mind--but it's noticeable.

My guess is that this problem would simply go away if you used a harmonica that was closer to the key of the performance. As an exercise in extreme harmonica playing, playing a piece in Eb with a C harmonica is impressive.  But my bet is that the musicality would increase dramatically if you were using a harp in Eb, Ab, or Bb, to take a few examples.  That would allow you to use the overblows more sparingly, and to greater emotional effect, while avoiding the inherent limitations of the technique.

Like I said earlier, my bias is evident.  I hope these comments are helpful in any case, even if they only serve to inspire you to prove me wrong.

And I repeat that this performance is obviously the work of a very talented and skilled musician.  I look forward to hearing much more from you.  Keep those videos coming.

Regards, Richard Hunter




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