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

[Winslow Yerxa <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hohner makes two models called Golden Melody, the tremolo you've encountered, and a single-reed diatonic.

The single reed version usually comes with silverish-colored covers, but Hohner also sometimes makes a gold-plated version.

W~
 
Winslow Yerxa
President, SPAH, the Society for the Preservation and Advancement of the Harmonica
Producer, the Spring 2014 Harmonica Collective
Author, Harmonica For Dummies, ISBN 978-0-470-33729-5
            Harmonica Basics For Dummies, ASIN B005KIYPFS
            Blues Harmonica For Dummies, ISBN 978-1-1182-5269-7
Resident Expert, bluesharmonica.com
Instructor, Jazzschool for Music Study and Performance


________________________________
 From: Eliza Doolittle <eliza.doolittle@xxxxxxxx>
To: "harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx" <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx> 
Sent: Friday, March 28, 2014 3:50 PM
Subject: Re: [Harp-L] Question about harps played by Bobby Darin
 

<snip>

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