[Harp-L] Re: solo harmonica competition

[Michael Parker <mscottparker@xxxxxxxxx>]

My initial thought on the whole subject was that bringing your own accompaniment can be an unfair advantage when being judged on your harp playing ability.  If one guy brings significantly better backup than another, his sound will be inevitably better, perhaps even if he is the less skilled of the two harp players.  I simply wondered at the possibility of leveling the playing field.  


One of the comments in this thread, however, made me realize that a harmonica's tone almost always sounds better with other instruments and, even more so, a harmonica player has a much higher chance of sounding bad alone.  To hold a competition forcing players to go it alone would certainly bring about more than a couple minutes of unpleasantness.  And you have a point, Mike, that playing with live music does test a particular set of skills in your interaction with other musicians.






>________________________________
> From: Mike Fugazzi <mikefugazzi@xxxxxxxxx>
>To: Michael Parker <mscottparker@xxxxxxxxx> 
>Sent: Thursday, February 23, 2012 12:46:27 PM
>Subject: Re: solo harmonica competition
> 
>I don't see how no accompaniment would bring out more virtuosos.
>Technical mastery displayed in the context of playing with others is
>much more impressive to me then solo.  Would that no imply a greater
>technical mastery than playing alone?
>
>I would say playing solo or to prerecorded music would be the least
>advantageous way to demonstrate virtuoso behavior as it pertains to
>playing harmonica.  Using the same mastery over live music would be
>the best as it is the trickiest.
>
>On Feb 22, 6:01 pm, Michael Parker <mscottpar...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>> It seems that a lot of players prefer to play their harp with other instruments and having a competition disallowing accompaniment would alienate that group.  I just wonder if disallowing accompaniment would bring out the real virtuosos?
>>
>
>