[Harp-L] Re: videos-- heavy metal rock harmonicas - YouTube

[Richard Hunter <turtlehill@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Randy Singer wrote: 
<well written richard!!!!!!!!!!!
<This harmonica genre is not for everyone...but I really loved it as well.
<Great to hear people adapting to the present day of music to keep us from going extinct......
<I am doing a lot of work with top DJ's in miami beach. It is really surreal to be playing harmonica on top of house music in <packed nightclubs at 3am in the morning.......

The modern view of any instrument is that it's not just a sound-producing artifact, it's a controller--a tool that the musician uses to access and control a wide range of electronically generated tones.  That's how it works for guitars, keyboards--and now harmonicas.

In this view, the harmonica's role is to initiate and shape tones for further modification.  The microphone translates these tones into electronic signals, which gives the player access to anything and everything that can be connected to the mic, not just an amp (which was the electronic sound-shaping tool of the 1950s).  And the fun begins.  (It must be BIG fun to see a crowd of 20-somethings jumping up and down in a Miami nightclub at 3 AM to an electronic 4-on-the-floor beat with altered harp floating on top.  Wow!)

Before someone jumps up to say that they'd rather just play old-timey music on an unamplified harp, I'm fine with that.  Roots matter.  But so do blooms.  If the blooms go stale, the roots die too.  It's pointless to argue about whether the stuff that was laid down in Chicago in 1950 (or Mississippi in 1920) was better.  It was great.  It inspired us all and changed our lives.  But we're here now, and the challenge is not solely to recreate the former glories, it's to make new ones. This guy Hakan Ehn is making some new stuff.  More power to him.

Regards, Richard 



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