Refugee
Tele-Afflicted
What's the best way to get rid of the impromptu, blues harp player, who wants to sit in with your band? Play a song in Eb maj7.
New to Harmonica. Any tips?
- Thread starter Midgetje94
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Beware and, if possible, play the room, is the only advice I can add to the wise stuff here.
Some rooms like harmonicas, some sort of, some NOT.
We usually gig in an old smallish church. Plaster walls, pine floors, high arching ceiling (about 20 ft. at its peak), lots of windows. We've hung quilts along the three truss rods that span the whole room, holding the building together, and that much helps minimize the skwonks and skwooks of the trebles that the room tortures around. But we still gotta be careful about all that. Especially when it comes to something as potentially sinus-drilling as a harmonica.
But if I play, bend the notes, and, especially play the higher pitches along with how the room bends things, it can actually accentuate some things very well. I can chase my own echoes, in effect. A nicely haunted effect.
It can also tempt me into thinking that I can fill more spaces than the room permits, but that's not so. Less is usually very much more. And just enough is the absolute line, is what it's all taught me. If I go a bit too far, everything I'm trying to do gets lost in a vultures-are-mating scrum.
Which indeed applies to just about everything else we play there, making our few moments of all-out blasting and chord-churning all the more effective, I think. Or dramatic, at least. Or over-reaching, perhaps....
Welcome to the wheezy world, Midgetje94, and have fun!
Some rooms like harmonicas, some sort of, some NOT.
We usually gig in an old smallish church. Plaster walls, pine floors, high arching ceiling (about 20 ft. at its peak), lots of windows. We've hung quilts along the three truss rods that span the whole room, holding the building together, and that much helps minimize the skwonks and skwooks of the trebles that the room tortures around. But we still gotta be careful about all that. Especially when it comes to something as potentially sinus-drilling as a harmonica.
But if I play, bend the notes, and, especially play the higher pitches along with how the room bends things, it can actually accentuate some things very well. I can chase my own echoes, in effect. A nicely haunted effect.
It can also tempt me into thinking that I can fill more spaces than the room permits, but that's not so. Less is usually very much more. And just enough is the absolute line, is what it's all taught me. If I go a bit too far, everything I'm trying to do gets lost in a vultures-are-mating scrum.
Which indeed applies to just about everything else we play there, making our few moments of all-out blasting and chord-churning all the more effective, I think. Or dramatic, at least. Or over-reaching, perhaps....
Welcome to the wheezy world, Midgetje94, and have fun!
danielreid27
Tele-Afflicted
1) Don't let others use your harmonicas
2 ) Don't buy second-hand
3) Pear wood eventually soaks with your gobslobber. A quick plunge into some Milton fluid ( don't let it soak ), shake it out, then let it dry -out of direct sunlight and not on a radiator- keeps the bugs away and stops the core warping
4) Never put it away wet. Wrap it in a towel short term, then let it air
5) If the singer is making singing noises, it isn't your cue to wail
6) Accent, not dominate
7) Everyone within earshot will hate you while you learn. Drive to the middle of nowhere and practice in your car. Don't practice while driving
8) Listen to as much music with harmonica content as you can. Learn by osmosis
9) Ignore me
2 ) Don't buy second-hand
3) Pear wood eventually soaks with your gobslobber. A quick plunge into some Milton fluid ( don't let it soak ), shake it out, then let it dry -out of direct sunlight and not on a radiator- keeps the bugs away and stops the core warping
4) Never put it away wet. Wrap it in a towel short term, then let it air
5) If the singer is making singing noises, it isn't your cue to wail
6) Accent, not dominate
7) Everyone within earshot will hate you while you learn. Drive to the middle of nowhere and practice in your car. Don't practice while driving
8) Listen to as much music with harmonica content as you can. Learn by osmosis
9) Ignore me
Finally some love for Charlie Musselwhite Thankyou!
danielreid27
Tele-Afflicted
Last edited:
Midgetje94
Friend of Leo's
ok! I’m at the point I can walk over pick it up and play single notes cleanly 80% if the times.
I’m a smoker, so trying to work on lung exercises.
I’m trying to memorize what’s where note wise. I have a book that breaks down som songs by hole/draw or exhale. Hard to learn when you can’t see the numbers lol. So trying to focus on memory of what’s where. Almost have to solder little bumps on like fret inlays
hit the 1,3,5,7, and 9.
One thing I’m struggling with is staying moist. (Poor wording?) lol. But mouth seems to dry out super fast and lips start sticking to the harp. @Fiesta Red any pointers on this?
*Jonathan's new tip for beginners. Get intimate with it. Lol. I was trying to mouth it like I was blowing out a candle. Nope.. no no no. To isolate single notes. You gonna have to get up in there haha.
I’m a smoker, so trying to work on lung exercises.
I’m trying to memorize what’s where note wise. I have a book that breaks down som songs by hole/draw or exhale. Hard to learn when you can’t see the numbers lol. So trying to focus on memory of what’s where. Almost have to solder little bumps on like fret inlays
hit the 1,3,5,7, and 9.One thing I’m struggling with is staying moist. (Poor wording?) lol. But mouth seems to dry out super fast and lips start sticking to the harp. @Fiesta Red any pointers on this?
*Jonathan's new tip for beginners. Get intimate with it. Lol. I was trying to mouth it like I was blowing out a candle. Nope.. no no no. To isolate single notes. You gonna have to get up in there haha.
My dad did that. It was the only instrument he played, and in the car was the only place he played it. He'd play one handed, driving with one eye on the road and the other looking for deer as the countryside passed. He's prob'ly doing the same in Heaven now.
The harp crosses to the fifth, the key crosses to the fourth. I post this to remind myself. I don't play very often, and I'm always getting this backward in my mind. Great thread, @Midgetje94
graybeard65
Tele-Meister
Tell me that you've heard Blues Traveler without ever mentioning their name...
Midgetje94
Friend of Leo's
Yea! I knew we had a few harp players here. Didn’t know how many. But a lot of good points and ideas.
Addnine
Tele-Afflicted
Blow for I, suck for V. That's all I know.
Charlie Bernstein
Doctor of Teleocity
Straight harp: blow for I, suck for IV and V in different places.
Cross harp: suck for I and V, blow for IV, certain restrictions apply.
Charlie Bernstein
Doctor of Teleocity
Runaround thing?
If you mean Bonnie Raitt's version of "Runaway," that's not a chromatic harp. It's Norton Buffalo playing a handful diatonics in different keys for different chords.
And if you don't, now you know, anyway!
Popper
As an older person and a Hee-Haw fan, I'd suggest you give a listen to the great Charlie McCoy.
Wow ! that is a cool tune and video !
