Posted by Tuten (63.210.223.30) on May 16, 2000 at 16:40:09:
In Reply to: Re: Playing more smoothly posted by Tuten on May 13, 2000 at 14:59:01:
: : : I finally recorded one of my practice sessions
: : : last night. When I listened back to it, I noticed
: : : that when I have a string of blow-draw notes back to
: : : back, my playing sounded kinda choppy, especially on
: : : the higher (hole 7 and up) notes, but I noticed it on
: : : most all of the notes.
: : : Are there any tricks to make these come out more
: : : smoothly?
: : : Thanks
: : : Jim Lukens
: : ======================================
: : I just added this as a FAQ in the Advanced/Miscellaneous section.
: : Webmaster
:
: Choppiness is a common difficulty with most harp players, and it takes a lotta time with practice to mellow it out. I still, after some five or so years have this problem with certain riffs I play and the remedy I've ever found for it was practice practice practice. I will give you a few tips on how you might be able to better manage this depending on how your playing, what you're playing, and so on; First of all, if you smoke, drink, or play on an empty or full stomach, this will impair your playing significatly. DON'T DO IT! This is esp. the case for playing after drinking liquids. Wet the throat, but do not drink large quantities of fluid. Coming outta the Little Walter 'school' of blues players, one thing I learned from him, particulary when your amping, is that 'choppiness' is easily 'heard' by the mike. Little Walter never played hard, but instead turned up the distortion and turned down the treble. He played into the mike real close and real easy, just enough to use his breath to get the sound he wanted, not 'blowing', but whispering the notes, feeding them in the instrument. One other thing is perhaps your positioning. Your lips need to be TIGHT on the reedholes and this gives you much better flow control esp. on blow/draws over the same hole. If you've got some LW, give im a listen and try to synch with him(esp. Blue Midnight(Bb), and Little Girl(C). Remember, be tight and kinda slide the harp nice and easy, and keep it right up on the mike, using one breath, not a lot of howls. Choppiness is technique however that has been mastered effectively by few. Howlin' wolf does it exquisitely and to this day I still don't know how he does it. I hope I could've been of help. Post me back and let me know how thingz turn out.
Oh I just wanted to add that Littel Walter was to the Harp what Jimi Handrix was to the guitar; He knew how to use distortion and choppiness to his advantage.Walter Horton as well, an also-believe it or not,JOhn Lee Williamson, make excellent use of choppiness, somehow making it all some very 'clean'...