Subject: Re: [Harp-L] Critical Harmonica Mistakes

[EGS1217@xxxxxxx]

My take's kind of half/half on this but agree quite a bit with  Richard.  
While I love listening to those Blues and other genres  (Celtic and Country) 
of players who are really good -  for a while  - I prefer playing other 
kinds of music for myself. 
 
 
Just yesterday I was testing out a mic system I snagged off EBay (a Kent  
(no longer made) thingamajig with mic, which slides over the back of a  
chromatic). While I only have a tiny mini-twin Fender amp good enough for my  
needs, the Kent mic holder deepens up the sound well enough even for  the 
CX-12's which are unfortunately just a bit too fat for it although I  forced them 
a bit (it's malleable to a point). I'm going to need to rig  something 
--but I like that tone I'm getting so far (or I might try  sending it out to 
Greg to update and work on since the tiny mic's cloth's a  bit raggedy): 
 
...it made my playing along with my 3 latest CD acquisitions sound pretty  
good even to my own ears:
 
 Adele's 21 album (on mostly an A and Bb chromatic)..there's a reason  this 
girl won 6 or 7 Grammies - she's a throwback to the 60's sound.
 
 
Whitney's greatest hits CD.
 
 
Lionel Richie: Tuskegee (duets) CD. It's very countrified --most of his big 
 hits redone with Country Singers: all fun to play along with (and there's 
even  GREAT harp on 'Easy (Like Sunday Morning)' with Willie Nelson --so I'm 
 assuming Mickey Raphael. I'm sure diatonics would sound even better.   How 
about Deep River Woman --(all slide in on a C chrom)? Don't tell me a Blues 
 player can't play that? It's about as country-blues as a song can get and 
is  still a cross-over Pop song.
 
 
While I still love a lot of the old standards, most of  MY musical  taste 
is from the 60's-on (Sam Cooke, Jackie Wilson, Otis Redding, The Temps,  Ben 
E King), to Barbra Streisand and Ray Charles, Dionne Warwick  w/ 
Bacharach...Simon & Garfunkel. People recognize the songs at Open  Mics and always 
compliment me afterwards occasionally asking the name of the  song if they can't 
'quite' remember who sang it. They DO always have a spark of  recognition 
for the songs even though my tastes can be a bit obscure: Keb Mo's  'Better 
Man' to Eva Cassidy's cover of 'Songbird'. For that matter a lot of  
Fleetwood Mac's songs were great, as were the Eagles, Bob Seger, Foreigner,  Journey 
--the list is so long. As is obvious, I prefer ballads and melody.  Melody 
is everything in my world.
 
 
You don't have to play songs from a generation you're completely over your  
head with--there are tons of good songs out there. Try some you didn't 
before  think would fit --surprise yourself. At the very least you won't be 
boring your  audiences with the same old, and you don't have to hang a label on  
yourself. The songs I play range from R&B, Country, Rock, Big  Ballads, 
blues-ified (on chrom) if I'm playing along with others, to big band  
standards. ANYthing goes if it sounds good.
 
 
Elizabeth
 
 
Message: 3
Date: Wed, 6 Jun 2012 12:04:04 -0400 (GMT-04:00)
From:  Richard Hunter <turtlehill@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [Harp-L]  Critical Harmonica Mistakes
To: _harp-l@xxxxxxxxxxx (mailto:harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx) 

Timothy Kane wrote:
<Harp is somewhat of an obscure instrument these  days, it's true. It's 
kinda faded into the same <realm of accordion and  theremin. In a world where 
electric guitars and R&B and hip-hop arrangements  <catch the majority of the 
mainstream ear, the relatively few people keeping  harp alive shouldn't be 
<discouraged in their green stages. 
...  
<Harp is slowly dying out from the public ear. I've made it my goal to  
bring it back to the light, <especially to people of my generation. Bailey  and 
Gaunt are doing the same thing, and I applaud <them both for  that.

In my opinion, "harp is slowly dying out" because harmonica players  have 
in general devoted themselves to styles that are losing ground in the  
marketplace, especially blues.

Harmonica is very closely associated with  traditional blues, to the point 
that many harmonica players would fit right in  with bands that were active 
on the Chicago scene 60 years ago. But the mass  audience has moved on from 
blues, and young people in particular are seeking  other styles to learn and 
follow. When I sat in with Charlie Musselwhite at  Infinity Hall in Norfolk 
CT, there were very few people in the audience under  the age of 50. That's 
not an ideal demographic for any art form. 

If we  want harmonica to stay relevant, harmonica players have got to put 
themselves  into new musical situations, with sounds and styles that depart 
from the amped  blues tradition. Many harmonica players are doing so. Many 
more need to do so to  make the instrument viable in the 21st century.

Not that I dislike blues.  It's what I started with, and what I still play 
every day. But blues was the  dominant music of the 20th century, and the 
20th century is over. It's time for  harp players to get with the times. 

Thanks, Richard  Hunter


author, "Jazz Harp" 
latest mp3s and harmonica blog at  http://hunterharp.com
Myspace http://myspace.com/richardhunterharp
Vids at  http://www.youtube.com/user/lightninrick
more mp3s at  http://taxi.com/rhunter
Twitter:  lightninrick


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