Re: [Harp-L] random contribution to the list regarding a note.

[The Iceman <icemanle@xxxxxxx>]

You touch on an interesting aspect of music.


So often musicians are focused on the attack and creation of a note. Once they verify that it is a good note, they are thinking ahead for the next one to play, even while the current one is "hanging in the air", or the duration.


If one stays in the moment for the full duration of a note, it may be shaped better from start to finished. The next note may be allowed to happen more organically.


I prefer this approach to making music.



-----Original Message-----
From: JON KIP <jon@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: harp-l <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wed, Sep 24, 2014 6:57 pm
Subject: [Harp-L] random contribution to the list  regarding a note.


Admittedly, I'm not a diatonic player, just a woodwind player gone astray and 
playing so-so jazz on the chromatic,just for the fun of it (yeah, that's enough 
to have you stop reading right here),  but I do, at times, find good reading on 
this list and thought I'd add a random bit of information for anyone interested, 
interested in feigning interest, or only interested-adjacent, regarding the 
playing of a note. Any note. In a phrase, out of a phrase, or just on a dare of 
some sort, or to annoy your dog.

I've been listening to some samples (the old usage of that word) of some players 
and it seems that, in more than a few cases, the ends of the notes are just 
disregarded.... at times, each note sounds like it's both started and cut off 
with the tongue...even on slow tunes...

My sixty + years at this silly "let's try to make a living playing music and 
never have a Real Job" thing, tell me that both  ends of notes are important.

this is not a rant, but an educated observation, that might be somewhat helpful. 
Or, of course, simply annoying and "who does he think he is?" kind of thing. (On 
my website, there's a page called that, if anyone has too much time on their 
hands. That page was included in the site because, at times, I forget who I am).

envelopes, it turns out , are not only for electronic sounds. How a note is 
ended can really be a thing of beauty , or , you know, the other thing.

ok, end of what I hope isn't perceived as a rant, rather than what it really is 
.....practice-avoidance on my part
jon kip
http://jonkip.com

player of music, mostly written by dead people and played on a toy that 
everybody's Uncle except my nephew's has the good sense to keep safely out of 
sight in a drawer.