Re: [Harp-L] Question about harps played by Bobby Darin

["Rudolf Nasahl" <rudi.nasahl@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello Eliza,

Yes, the Golden Melody is available as Tremolo but also as diatonic, 10 
hole, Richter tuned, blues harp. The latter ones have as a standard 
stainless steel cover plates. Only the model in the key of C however is 
available with golden shiny coverplates. On my computer screen Bobby's harp 
does not look golden, also not silver, something in between. But what one 
can recognize is the unique trapezoid shape of the Golden Melody. I play 
Golden Melody since years. The sound of especially the E and F models is 
really superb and it was the one in the key of F which allowed me to achieve 
my first clean bends.

Regards Rudi

-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht----- 
From: Eliza Doolittle
Sent: Friday, March 28, 2014 11:50 PM
To: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [Harp-L] Question about harps played by Bobby Darin

Thanks a lot to all of you for your answers! It's great to know what harps I 
should use to fool about with the songs... I'm a great believer in playing 
and playing even if at first you cannot do anything close to what you'd like 
to play. You often learn things by making mistakes. I'm half way through 
learning to bend notes. Except for hole 1 (whose bent note is my pride and 
joy, well in tune and with a full nice sound) all I can do is produce 
out-of-tune notes amidst a shrill noise... So I think it's a matter of more 
time and more practice. I think I can already identify some of the bent 
notes in Bobby's playing, and I hope I'll grow more accurate with time.

I also do appreciate Phil's long answer. I was somewhat scared at thinking 
of how quickly things move during that song. Being able to get a slow mp3 
version will certainly help. I had no idea it could be done keeping the 
right key. I do have the DVD, so I can skip the downloading step and try to 
get an mp3 file out of it. I'm not very technological, to say the least, but 
I think that your explanations will allow me to do it easily. Is there any 
alternative to KeyMySong for those of us who don't own an iPod    or iPad, 
and only have got a computer? It certainly does look great as a way to find 
out whether one's ear is right at finding out chords (something I haven't 
tried much before - I'm good at melodies, but chords are untrodden land to 
me). Thanks also for the tip about Little Walter's book. It looks like I'll 
be ordering it before too long.

I've been surprised at reading that Bobby Darin's playing a Hohner Golden 
Melody. I used to have one with that name, golden with a red comb, but it 
was a longer tremolo harmonica (for some reason, a tremolo harmonica is the 
standard one you get here in Spain when you go to a shop and ask for one, so 
it's the one all children take to school trips and camps). Now that I watch 
the video again, it's true that Bobby's harp looks golden. I've gone to 
Hohner's web site, and it certainly lists a diatonic harp with that name, 
although it's silver, not gold, in spite of its name. I suppose it has 
changed since that time.

Best regards,

Eliza Doolittle



El Viernes 28 de marzo de 2014 19:49, "philharpn@xxxxxxx" 
<philharpn@xxxxxxx> escribió:

Short answer: You need to download the youtube to your computer, convert it 
to mp3 (or windows sound format) and import it into a slow down program that 
will allow you to slow the playback down without changing pitch.

Long answer: details:
First of all, you have to find a way to download the youtube or buy the 
DVD/CD "Mack if Back" this song comes from. Wondershare Video Converter is 
one program that will let you download and save the youtube to your computer 
mac/PC versions. Wondershare allmytube is another program from the same 
ccmpany. You can download a demo to see if the program works on your 
computer before you send in the money to register it.

However you do it, you will need a copy of the audio track (Wondershare 
converts video to mp3) on your computer and then you will need a program 
like the Amazing Slow Downer or Transcribe to slow it down witihout changing 
key or distorting the sound. The you can hear -- possibly -- the individual 
notes and can try to match them by playing in the key of A with your key of 
D harmonica, starting on two hole draw/three hole blow (same notes).

To check the key, load the app KeyMySong into your iPod Touch or iPad. Load 
the song into your iPod, have KeyMySong find the tune and in a few minutes 
it will tell you the chords/key.

KeyMySong is useful to develope the key finding skills. Play a song, try to 
find key. CHeck with KeyMySong to see if you got it right.

(There are at least three youtube versions of this Darin performance. Two of 
them have failed to download for me so far. the third version worked.)

This is the one that says Bobby Darin, Midnight Special, Mack is Back DVD : 
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cQGjTqxJ_A>

Then you load the file into Wondershare Video Converter and convert it to 
mp3 (or WAV for PC)


Then you load it into  Transcribe and slow it down.

Whether you can play along with this slowed down version depends on if you 
can play bent notes and if you can recognize a bent note when you hear it.

You may also discover that no matter how slow you play back Bobby Darin's 
"Midnight Special," -- or other songs --  you can't figure out the harp 
notes -- either because the sound is mushy from his technique or the 
recording quality.

You may find that in a song like "Juke" by Little Walter (aka Leap Frog in 
Les Brown big band 1945 version) is easier to hear the individual notes.

Check out Amazon -- you don't have to buy but the site is great for window 
shopping.

Sourcebook of Little Walter/Big Walter Licks for Blues Harmonica by Tom Ball
is a good place to start. This has a CD with it. It gives you all basic 
techniques you need to go on.

At Amazon look under Books, search for Little Walter. You'll find several 
listed.

Blues Harmonica Collection
This doesn't have a CD, but you can nowadays download individual tracks. 
With 40 tunes this book would cost $40 + the $12 paper or $10 Kindle price. 
This has a wide variety of tunes and I like it for that. Many of the tunes 
in this book feature harp players but the harp players are sidemen and you 
can only find the tunes looking under the name of the guitar leader of the 
band. Some people have  a hard time understanding this concept. So if at 
first you can't find a tune, look under the name of the guitar player 
instead of Little Walter or whatever.

Re: Kindle: Don't underestimate the value of Kindle downloads, you can read 
Kindle books on Kindles (various models), iPods, iPads, PCs and iMacs --  
that I know of.

Sorry this is so long. I tend to get inebriated by the exuberance of my own 
verbosity sometimes.
Hope this helps,

Phil Lloyd
ps--I always tell the students in my Harmonica 101 class that the first step 
in learning is confusion. SO don't be upset if it seems a bit much at first.




-----Original Message-----
From: Eliza Doolittle <eliza.doolittle@xxxxxxxx>
To: harp-l <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Fri, Mar 28, 2014 12:31 pm
Subject: [Harp-L] Question about harps played by Bobby Darin


That my first harp-related question to the list is a silly question is very 
much
in character for me. I'm asking because it's easy to see it hasn't been 
asked
before by making a search; for all other questions I had I've found and I'm
finding answers in the archives. At least so far. I'm a great fan of Bobby 
Darin's. Not as a harp player: without knowing much
about harps, I've always believed him to be just fine, playing adequately 
but
simply (my hat's off to him as a drummer and percussionist, though). Which 
I've
seen was commented on a few years ago here in the list. What I like about 
this
is that trying to copy something of what he plays seems an attainable goal 
for
me in the more-or-less short term (developing more interesting ideas with 
that
point of departure would be the next step). I'd like to do this because 
whenever
I watch him I do feel like singing along, dancing along, jumping along and, 
why
not, playing along (being equally unqualified for all of them!). For me, one 
of his most contagious songs with harp is this 'The Midnight
Special': http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbW55CTqf_U Would you please tell 
me which harp he's using in this song (jump to 2:57 to
hear it)? The song is in A, but I don't know whether the harp is in A, in D, 
or
in some other key. And, as a very secondary question, can you see/hear what 
is the brand of his
harp? Just out of curiosity (I'm not going to buy a harp only because BD 
played
it, and apart from that, I cannot find anything but Hohner in my town 
anyway).
You can have a better view in http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFNxhYs3N10 (at
3:49). What's the key of this one? He picks the wrong one first, but all I 
can
say is that both of them seem to have a lot of Gs. Thanks a lot in advance. 
Eliza Doolittle