Blowin' The Family Jewels!!!
Shoji continued his talk from two weeks ago about building up improvisation chops. He used the incredible William Clarke instrumental, Blowin' the Family Jewels, as a template for pulling out cool rhythmic phrases. We lifted a one or two bar phrase, removed the notes and were left with the rhythm. Shoji then demonstrated, first with root notes and then with other notes that you could build your own melody over the given rhythm. It was an eye-opening experience for everyone in B1 and suddenly we were all creating 12 bars of improv that were strong both rhythmically and melodically. No wheedle-deedling here; just great blues!
Remember, rhythm is HALF of the music, so start giving it some respect!
Shoji recommends the album Groove Time if you want a copy of this song!
And if you want a play-along track for this song, go to Blues Harp Tracks - Shoji has made one that is just the right groove and length, in two tempos if you're not up to the 200bpm version just yet! Wanna see the track in action? Here's Shoji playing along with it: video.
Terrific night of instruction Shoji, thanks!
James Conway and Jean Sabot!!!
Our friend and amazing Irish harp player, James Conway, is bringing a special guest from France to B1 on August 13, so don't miss it! In the meantime, here are two videos of Jean Sabot and James playing together:
The Mooncoin Jig (medley)
Molloy's Favourite (medley)
Class Notes
- Joe will be back in class next week, August 6 and all classes run as normal.
- Grant Kessler, B1 Blues Crew
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