Re: [Harp-L] Chugging and Choo-Choo Noises

[Mike Wilbur <mike@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

One of my favorite lines " it takes a train to cry ". Just can't remember what song that came from.

Love Train Sounds....from Trains, I grew up with them too.


Mike Wilbur

> On Oct 17, 2014, at 11:20 AM, Joseph Leone <3n037@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> 
> 
> I have to join the Doug/Mike parade on this. I consider the two instruments as completely different and each with it's own attributes and pitfalls. And while I do a lot of tunes
> using both on the same tune, there is nothing like a diatonic for some things. Whereas the chromatic is better for some things. For example: to play Summertime on a chromatic
> or Georgia on a diatonic. Anything else is borderline blasphemy. I play about 60/40 chromo/diat. 
> 
> I find it amusing that the best players on choo choo and train sounds are: #1.. too young to have experienced real trains (Steam). and #2.. never lived 132 feet from train tracks.
> 
> As a small child growing up in Sharpsburg (Pittsburgh), I would lie in my crib at night and listen to the coke trains coming down the Allegheny valley from the ovens upriver. 
> When they reached the edge of our town they would blow their whistles so that the mills would know that they were only 1 1/2 miles away and to get ready. The sounds of 
> those whistles echoing in the valley were some of the creepiest, most laconic, morose, lonely sounds I have ever heard even to this day. And for that dear friends....definitely
> requires a diatonic. As the trains went by they would shake the glazing compound out of the window frames. .   lolol
> 
> smokey joe.  (who once told Casey Jones "Slow the h*** down goof ball") yes, he is the most unforgettable character you will ever meet.   
> 
> 
>> On Oct 17, 2014, at 10:34 AM, Mike Wilbur wrote:
>> 
>> I have to agree with Doug on this.
>> If a diatonic was specifically built for Train Sounds, I would take up the Trombone again.
>> 
>> I know Choo-Choo and Chugging has a important place in Music and certainly a historical significance in American Blues, Country and Blue Grass.
>> I respect that.
>> 
>> For myself.....I'll take the bus
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Mike Wilbur
>> 
>> 
>>> On Oct 17, 2014, at 10:07 AM, Doug Schroer <dougharps@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Thanks for posting a very nice clip of chromatic harmonica playing Gershwin
>>> well.
>>> 
>>> You know, I have never heard anyone say that chromatic harmonica was "made
>>> for chugging and choo-choo noises."  It isn't.  It was designed to play
>>> music that the diatonic could not perform well.
>>> 
>>> Regarding Richter tuned diatonic harmonica (designed for chords), there is
>>> an historical tradition of playing "chugging and choo-choo noises" in a
>>> folk style that can demonstrate mastery of certain techniques, and that has
>>> been used to entertain many.
>>> 
>>> "Chugging" can also be used as part of rhythmic self accompaniment in
>>> blues.  I do not engage in train and fox chase renditions, as it is not my
>>> thing, but I respect the technique needed to perform this well.
>>> 
>>> Can't we appreciate a chromatic harmonica performance without a swipe at an
>>> old school diatonic technique?
>>> 
>>> I wish you had just posted the YouTube video without the "Chugging and
>>> Choo-Choo Noises" heading.
>> 
>