Re: [Harp-L] Do teachers & players tend to undervalue first position?

[Joe Leone <3n037@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Mar 27, 2011, at 10:27 PM, Rick Dempster wrote:

> First position masters (in the blues/jazz vein):
> 
> Don Les
> Blues Birdhead
> Gwen Foster
> Rhythm Wilie
> 
> Of these three favourites, Don Les' diatonic stuff is probably the least well known among us reeders; although
> I'd be willling to bet that the majority of listers haven't heard the other three either, orwould like 'em if they did.
> Don plays the diatonic in first, with minimal note bending, and negotiates his way most swingingly
> through pre WWII standards like 'All of me', 'After You've Gone', 'The world is waiting for the sun to rise',
> 'Stardust' and more.
> Most of the changes cover chords like: C, Dm, EM, Em, FM7, G7, Gm7, AM7, A7, Am7, Bb M, Bb7, Bm C# dim, D dim.;
> Is a pattern emerging here? Yes; all thes notes are reachable on the diatonic, with minimal changes of breath direction, and, depending on the octave, without overblows, which Don either didn't know about, or cared not to.

Don cared not to. 

> Don has a jazz vocablary, which most harp players I hear, do not.
> In 1st, the notes are all there; that's what the damn thing was made to do!!
> What Don misses in first, notably all the bends we are used to on Zb demolished etc., he makes up for with great phrasing decorated with grace notes.

Don was the master of something I like to call 'snowjoberall'. It's something like 'Armorall' and cones in a can. If there was a note that he couldn't get, he would whip out a can of snowjoberall and spray it (a bunch of notes) on the listener. By the time you figured out what he was doing, he was already long gone.  

> OK; I'll stop raving; contact Mo Vint in Ontario, which is the only place you'll get it and listen to Don. First rules!

I have the original tapes. They are in a safety deposit box. 

> If you haven't listened to Birdhead, Gwen or Willie, then do so at once!

Here here..or beter yet hear, hear. lolol
smokey joe 


> 
> RD
> 
> 
> 
> 
>>>> Tony Eyers <tony@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> 27/03/11 11:01 AM >>>
> For 25 years I focused on 2nd and 3rd position for blues and general 
> accompanyment, my own Major Cross tuning for fiddle tunes. I never gave 
> first position much thought.
> 
> Then I wrote the Harmonica Academy teaching site. I had to learn first 
> position. Now I love it. It is a powerful blues position (listen to the 
> opening track on Dennis Gruneling's CD "Up All Night). Really great for 
> fiddle tunes as well. The trick however is mastery of the 3 draw bend 
> (an A note for a C harmonica). This note takes some years to control 
> well enough for tunes, once done, first position opens many possibilities.
> 
> Tony Eyers
> Australia
> www.HarmonicaAcademy.com
> ...everyone plays
> 
>