RE: [Harp-L] Bending blow notes

[JersiMuse <jersimuse@xxxxxxxxx>]

Ah ah ! You are way too nice with me Joe, and far not demanding enough :-)

I do play also by my own of course, especially with 2 bands : Jazz-Rock &
Swing/Bossa bands.
I'm still far from the level I'd like to achieve, which explains why I am so
shy  :-)
And I use youtube as a sort of laboratory for my work, not as a way to
spread my music.
Concerning my own playing, I prefer sharing it in live concerts. The reason
is that, to me, Jazz should be an absolute improvisation at each second.
Which means it is a unique moment, which can only be heard once.
I'm pretty sure the real reason behind this nice principal is that I know
I'd be disappointed after each my recordings ah ah.
But I'll take much more time in the next 3 years to clearly define my own
path, and make things happen.
I've already written quite a lot of tunes, I have to find what I want to do
with them.

BTW, I'll show you someone who can easily beat me at this exercise !!
(give me few days, I'm not home, I don't have the link, and my connection is
awful).

Thanks again Joe, I'm particularly sensitive to your support because I'm
very respectful of your playing, as well as your interventions on this list
!

Best regards,

Jerome
www.youtube.com/JersiMuse

-----Message d'origine-----
De : Joseph Leone [mailto:3n037@xxxxxxxxxxx] 
Envoyé : vendredi 10 août 2012 19:10
À : JersiMuse
Cc : harp-l
Objet : Re: [Harp-L] Bending blow notes


On Aug 10, 2012, at 12:22 PM, JersiMuse wrote:

> Ok, I?ve learnt an important word today, thanks :-)
> 
> 
> 
> Well, to be honest, I?m quite impressed by all these XB40 & SUB30 
> technologies, by the creativeness of some people, but I am not really 
> interested as a player.

I wouldn't think you WOULD be. You are already too far advanced for these
harps to add anything substantial to your already impressive arsenal.
I don't want to sound goofy here, but assuming that your videos are not
'gimmicked' or altered in any way, I can honestly say that while I haven't
heard ALL the players there are in the world, I certainly can't recall
anyone who can beat your expertise on these types of exercises. I would
wager that there are a lot of actual studio musicians of some fairly well
known name recognition that could only dream of doing what you are able to
do. Am I to assume that you spend 15.88 YEARS on each of these tunes? 
> 
> The first reason is that I?ve learnt to play in all keys, & I don?t 
> care about the technique being used to make it possible. So I don?t 
> want to change all my playing now without a real good reason.

I feel that any change you would make or try to make to your playing at THIS
point in time would only serve to ruin what you have already accomplished. 
> 
> The second reason is that, to my opinion, the problem is not to be 
> able to play all the notes (learning overnotes is not that complicated 
> anyway), but to know what to do with all these new notes. Acquire 
> musicality in all keys, getting a good swing, developing its 
> vocabulary etc, is much longer than learning how to play all notes.

Yes, the choice of notes and where to put them in the logical stream is
paramount. Your choices are sublime and even though you are already working
with a predetermined track, you still have the wherewithall to mold them to
YOUR thought patterns. 
> 
> The third reason is that playing all the notes doesn?t mean playing in 
> all keys. To play in all keys, the notes should enable to easily play 
> arpeggios, pentatonics etc. I mean the location of each note on the 
> instrument is very important. On the examples I?ve seen, the changes 
> may enable to get all the notes, but seem to make it more complicated 
> to play all arpeggios for example.

Again, you have to remember that others aren't at your level. You have
become one with your chosen instrument, have been sincere about investing
the massive time and effort.
Zillions of other may find some grand use for these instruments. You,
however, are at a point where you could do (to use an analogy) eye surgery
with a chimney brick and it would still work out fine. 
> 
> I?d be really interested (and I have to say surprised) to see someone 
> playing correctly in all keys on a XB40 or a SUB30. Maybe I?m wrong, 
> and I?ll definitely give it a try, but I feel it is much more 
> complicated than overblowing.

Ha ha easy for YOU to say. And, you ARE using a premium harp..but if I had
one teensie suggestion..and this is in no way a negative wave, back off the
background a little bit. I was able to hear you through it all but you're
better than Gordon and shouldn't have him muffling your efforts. I wanna
hear THE Jerome. 
> 
> So personally, I?ll stick with my regular harp, customized to be 
> airtight & settled to optimize the playing in all keys.
> 
> In fact, I?d be much more interested if the manufacturers developed 
> more harps with more slots, than if they totally rethink the 
> instrument to get notes I can already get with not much effort.

Going higher would only be screechy...you're doing fine as is. :)
> 
> I?d like to get a harmonica which proposes notes that I can?t get at all.
> 
> 
> 
> Think about it : once you play in all keys on one instrument, your 
> first priority becomes to be able to play on 3 octaves in all keys.

Here is the only place where I disagree. Your playing in 2.5 octaves is
better than most could do on 8.4375 octaves. 
> 
> Please Mr Seydel, Hohner, Suzuki & others : make this possible on all 
> your models ! :-)
> 
> 
> 
> Regards,
> 
> 
> 
> Jerome
> 
> www.youtube.com/JersiMuse
> 
>