Re: [Harp-L] Bluegrass Harmonica

[Cara Cooke <cyberharp@xxxxxxxxx>]

You have made good point.  There are two main ways to make yourself useful
and still be a harmonica player when you wish to join bluegrass jams:  hold
your own on fiddle tunes with a strong melody line, just like the string
players, and/or be tasteful with how you apply the harmonica, but be a
great lead singer for the group (which means that you have a whole other
world of woodshedding to do to not just sing the songs, but know your keys
and tempos) or be a great harmony singer.  Bluegrass jams usually lack
harmony singers and are often short on lead singers, so the jam may
tolerate, and eventually enjoy, having a harmonica player, as long as you
can contribute where contributions are most often needed.

Cara



On Mon, Dec 17, 2012 at 8:27 PM, Tony Eyers <tony@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> I became serious about bluegrass harmonica around 17 years ago. I'd
> started attending Australian bluegrass festivals, wanted to join in, but
> could not. The reason: I didn't know the tunes.
>
> The bluegrass fiddle tune repertoire, or part thereof, is the pass key to
> bluegrass sessions, in my view.  We have some wonderful bluegrass fiddle
> tune exponents on the list, Cara Cooke and Trip Henderson come to mind
> (I've met and played with both of them).
>
> Anyway, around 1995 I started learning the tunes, after several years I
> could play a good selection, more or less. Everyone has their own journey
> through bluegrass tunes, mine was via retuned harmonicas.
>
> It's easier now, through good online advice. At the risk of self promotion
> (...who? me?), here are some of my pointers on getting started with
> bluegrass fiddle tunes for harmonica
>
> - http://www.harmonicatunes.com/**traditional<http://www.harmonicatunes.com/traditional> - articles on the basic bluegrass fiddle tune repertoire, how to approach
> learning, tempos etc
>
> - http://www.HarmonicaAcademy.**com <http://www.harmonicaacademy.com/> -
> my teaching site, which, as far as I know, has the most detailed outline of
> how to play fiddle tunes in 1st, 2nd and 3rd position, with exercises,
> repertoire, backing tracks etc. Happy to be corrected on this, but
> nonetheless a good resource, I think.
>
> Tony Eyers
> Australia
> www.HarmonicaAcademy.com <http://www.harmonicaacademy.com/>
> ...everyone plays
>