Tuesday, November 22, 2016

What Did You Miss This Week (Week 468 #513)

Accompaniment Playing!!!
 
B1 workshopped our accompaniment playing again last night. This time Joe reduced fill options to only one hole - players were allowed the two draw (root) and the two draw full bend (flat seventh) plus the transition tones between. The point of reducing to so few choices is that playing fills is perhaps the most difficult of the accompaniment techniques and people fall for the temptation to "noodle". Working with just this hole shows blues horsepower and that simplicity can be powerful.

The other things to learn here with this exercise are: A) INHALE! and B) blues is dissonance and resolving. Bending up to the root accomplishes that for you.

(Ok, you're also allowed the one draw in the turnaround, but only there.)

At the end it was good also to hear Joe demo the same technique. People should be practicing this at home with play-along songs and we'll do it again next week.

Class Notes
  • Final Take - we'll record again in the Performance Class, December 12. Use remaining class time to focus on fine-tuning your song.
  • Mark your calendars for Joe's next Harlem Avenue Lounge Harmonica Party, November 29.
  • Holiday music - Joe has video of him playing I Saw Three Ships up on his Facebook Store page.
  • Happy Thanksgiving!

Bookshelf

 
The first ever English language book about John Lee is out:

John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson: The Blues Harmonica of Chicago's Bronzeville written by Mitsutoshi Inaba