Re: [Harp-L] Re: The Groove?

[Mike Wilbur <mike@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Throwing Snow at a fence....some of it sticks, I appreciate all of this input.

No one is wrong here, I learn from all of you...M

Mike Wilbur



On Sep 8, 2013, at 4:41 PM, The Iceman <icemanle@xxxxxxx> wrote:

> Always interested to hear different opinions.
> 
> 
> I've had success teaching the groove to students, so it can be done.
> 
> 
> Seems to me the arguments below are similar to those that claim "you can't learn perfect pitch. you have to be born with it".
> 
> 
> However, the David L. Burghe courses have shown otherwise.
> 
> 
> Don't like absolute statements that take away a viable possibility from interested students, so disagree with the comments below.
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: chicago bluesman <chicagobluesman@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: harp-l <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Sun, Sep 8, 2013 4:05 pm
> Subject: RE: [Harp-L] Re: The Groove?
> 
> 
> Good thoughts, Jon.  When I read the original posting my thoughts, too, were 
> that the way to address the issues raised is to listen, play and feel rather 
> than overthink it.  To me, it's irreducible--you can't reverse engineer it, 
> won't be successful by breaking it down into its component parts, you can't hope 
> to function like a food scientist where you isolate the chemical basis for grape 
> flavoring and then recreate it.  Nope.  But, still, I'm sympathetic to the 
> question.
> 
> The process of acquiring comfort with the instrument and becoming fluent in a 
> style of music--blues in all its forms, country, bluegrass, jazz, Irish fiddle 
> tunes--is much like learning a language.  First come the basic skills in 
> producing the requisite noises--the phonemes.  On the harp, this would be 
> comparable to learning to produce single notes cleanly, with strong and stable 
> tone.   Then you learn grammar, structure, phrasing--like basic words and 
> phrases.  Eventually you acquire the skill to say what you want to say 
> but...then the hard part starts: you need to have something interesting to speak 
> about.  That really is the hardest part.  Finding your own ideas.
> 
> My advice: listen and be moved by other players.  Like speech, it starts with 
> emulation.  Sample all of the great players that are constantly referenced here.  
> Listen to live players.  Play along with a few--just a few--fav recordings in a 
> call-and-response fashion.  Push yourself to learn a few key riffs or melodies 
> verbatim--like Big Walter's solo on Walking By Myself or Juke in its entirety or 
> Cotton's standard solo on Blow Wind or Big Walter's Trouble In Mind or the 
> classic Sonny Boy riff that usually opens Nine Below Zero or...whatever.  But 
> don't think that copying these tunes/riffs will be the key.  Be patient.  Always 
> be working on something.  Experiment with the subtleties such as your attack, 
> differences in embouchure (I shift between pucker & u-block constantly, with 
> occasional tongue block octave chords), volume, hand effects, vibrato, breathing 
> and control of your air column.  You may find a way to get optimal tone if 
> you're relaxed and find an embouchure and playing stance that seems to let the 
> instrument resonate and sing most freely.  It should be mostly fun and relaxed 
> but you really have to be patient with the process.  
> 
> My two cents.
> 
> John
> 
>      
> 
>