[Harp-L] Interesting Recording session

[Michael Rubin]

Around a year ago I experienced an interesting session.  The leader had
written a song and recorded it with vocals.  That is the second link on the
message, for those who dare (or have the attention span) to listen to two
recordings.    Sadly, the version I found with vocals is just a minute long
sample.

If I remember correctly, he was inspired by The Lovin Spoonful who recorded
a vocal song and then a harmonica version of the same melody.  He wanted me
to imitate his vocals to create an instrumental version.

He sent me the written music version of the song.  I quickly assessed that
his vocals strayed wildly from the written melody and timing.  I tabbed my
own version.

Recently, I had been on Harp-l and someone was selling a bunch of
chromatics in different keys.  I quickly emailed her, asking the amount of
money she wanted.  "$150.", she said.  "Per harp?"  "No, for the lot of
them."  SOLD!

So I was interested in seeing which chromatic was really right for the
job.  Although I play diatonic chromatically I felt chromatic was the way
to go.  I retabbed it into scale degrees so I could easily play in whatever
position the key dictated on each differently keyed chromatic.  Honestly, I
forget the chromatic I played, but I am remembering a G.

We had around 30 minutes to record the song.  The main issue was how much
improvisation he wanted to add some flair to the melody.  Simple techniques
such as vibrato by hand, throat or jaw, slight bends, etc can really become
overbearing when playing something so simple.

When we got a cut we wanted, the engineer was very good at theory and we
had good communication.  We came up with a bunch of harmonies that we put
on extra tracks.  Harmonica harmonies!

Hope you enjoy it!

https://exit.sc/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ffriendstotheend.net%2Fsongs%2Fat-the-matinee%2F

And here's the vocal:

https://soundcloud.com/friendstotheend/sample-at-the-matinee

Thanks for listening.
Michael Rubin
michaelrubinharmonica.com