P.S. Sorry, I got carried away and forgot that it was Harpfriends hard work and time + Oldwailer's excellent track that made the first one possible. Hope the suggestion is cool with the Harpfriends crowd.
---------- 'If it sounds GOOD to you, it's bitchen; if it sounds BAD to YOU, it's shitty' - Frank Zappa
http://www.youtube.com/user/SlimHarpMick
Last Edited by on Jul 02, 2009 1:02 PM
GH, I knew you'd be on the case! Do you want Harpfriends to organise it, or would you prefer that the forum figure it out? Both you and Isaacullah put in a lot of time last time around.
Good luck with the exams. ---------- 'If it sounds GOOD to you, it's bitchen; if it sounds BAD to YOU, it's shitty' - Frank Zappa
id love to do anouther. id prefer a slow blues. maybe a boogie. any thing else im not realy at that level yet. plus iv been slackin in my playin lately so this would give me a reason to play more.
js, maybe nothing faster than a medium tempo would be fairer to everyone. ---------- 'If it sounds GOOD to you, it's bitchen; if it sounds BAD to YOU, it's shitty' - Frank Zappa
We have to find enough people that want to participate. The only thing that has to be done is to find a good backing track. The rules and stuff could simply be copied from the last contest.
The people that want to participate just post so on this thread. This would give a clue on how big the resonance is.
If anybody knows of a good playalong song, ditto.
Same as jon, this would be a good reason to play more. I practiced and learned a lot at our last HPC. ---------- germanharpist, harpfriends on Youtube
GH, Sounds good to me. We've got loads of backing stuff we can use. Let's see what the others want to use. ---------- 'If it sounds GOOD to you, it's bitchen; if it sounds BAD to YOU, it's shitty' - Frank Zappa
I'm sort of in depending on whether I'll be able to create a video.
Just a suggestion.
Does it necessarily need to have a backing track?
How about doing something like playing "Summertime"? That way we don't need to worry about a backing track and we could score on the amount of feeling we could impart to the piece and how we choose to fill in the fiddly bits.
I know it may not be Bluesy enough for a lot of you, but it's something most of us know and we could personalise it with our own style to give it a bit of feeling.
Seems to me that the forum has attracted more advanced players lately who actually gig etc. It would be great if they would participate for newbies to learn from. But I wouldn't be surprised if this type of thing draws more advanced beginners & intermediates. If I'm right, any thoughts on how to attract them?
" How about doing something like playing "Summertime"? "
Thats a fantastic idea!
People that want a little bit more of a challange could play it in some crazy position...
"Summertime" it is? EDIT: kinda rushin' here. But, damn it, I'm eager... for a harpfriends playalong challenge. ---------- germanharpist, harpfriends on Youtube
Last Edited by on Jul 02, 2009 2:33 PM
It's a relatively easy melody to learn but it has the potential for a lot of innovation and improvisation within it. The skill will come from creating an interesting intro/outro etc. You can speed it up, slow it down, jazz it up, go off at tangents etc etc. The fun part would be to see how people take a standard classic melody and personalise it to their way of playing.
I don't mind doing Summertime. In any case, I'll go along with whatever is decided. ---------- 'If it sounds GOOD to you, it's bitchen; if it sounds BAD to YOU, it's shitty' - Frank Zappa
I just checked it out. I think I did a little mistake: the tabs I wrote down are in second position. I just tried to copy the original on my A harp and I think that's actually 3rd position... (so B).
With all the bends it actually sounds really horn-lie.
Anyway, I could be wrong again with the key/position.
Summertime sounds awesome... however, I'm a little concerned that I won't like that song anymore after practicing it for a couple of weeks (and that would be a shame). anybody has another idea what other song we could use. Maybe something jazzy/swingy like summertime...
I think we should get results from the first harpfriends contest first :-P
I will enter if there are different levels (maybe by how long they've been playing) because it seems unfair to put beginners up against advanced players. ---------- "Without music, life would be a mistake" -Nietzsche
"it seems unfair to put beginners up against advanced players. "
that depends on how you see it:
If its a competition: then yes beginners will have less of a chance than advanced players and categorizing by how long they've been playing won't change that.
If its a challenge (for yourself): well then the beginners have a lot more stuff that they can copy of the advanced players and the advanced players are disadvantaged....
And, btw., thats exactly why I thought playing a song like Summertime is a pretty good idea, because everybody can make it as hard as they want (no backing track to bore the advanced players).
If we have to have some judging and you want to get the skill level out of the equation, what about that: everybody uploads a vid/soundfile after lets say 30min of practicing. Then after three weeks we upload the final take and it is judged after who improved the most...
doesnt that seem fair?
At the end, who cares who wins (although we'd all like it of course) as long as it's a challenge for everyone... ... and we all practice a lot and get better! ---------- germanharpist, harpfriends on Youtube
I put up a thread about a week ago that enquired about the outcome of the first contest. Buddha said something like, 'I dropped the ball on that one.' I think he said that he never got round to returning Adam's call. So, I think we've had the results of the first contest: no over all winner. But that's cool; it was still fun to do.
As for your second point, I think it's a bit difficult to make the equation 'length of time playing / musical output = quality of music' if you know what I mean.
Some of us, myself included, started playing many years ago, but, for one reason or another, gave up for varying lengths of time.
Don't forget that jonsparrow, who'd only been playing for a few months at the time, still got into the top seven; we saw the musicianship emerging.
Anyway, I'll go with your suggestion if that turns out to be the consensus. but, for the reason I set out above, it just seems a bit hard to gague.
Maybe a compromise would be if players chose to enter as self-confessed beginner, intermediate or advanced players. They could then be judged accordingly. ---------- 'If it sounds GOOD to you, it's bitchen; if it sounds BAD to YOU, it's shitty' - Frank Zappa
http://www.youtube.com/user/SlimHarpMick
Last Edited by on Jul 03, 2009 2:07 AM
Lots of beautiful and/or cool versions of Summertime on youtube, plenty of tabs floating around on the internet too.... PLUS, it doesn't have to be note for note the same... I'M IN!!!!
---------- DutchBones Tube
Last Edited by on Jul 03, 2009 2:25 AM
I think the first thing we should remember is not to let this get too complicated. KISS. Keep It Simple Stupid. There was so much debate before the previous competition that I got confused and a bit put off by it all. It's supposed to be fun.
Regarding the fact that this idea may be too easy for the Pro's out there, you never know, the Pro's may find it more difficult to play minus the support of a backing track that can cover a lot of minor faults which would only be noticeable in a solo. (sp)
Whatever tune we finally end up with, it's more about OUR interpretation of it, and a beginner/intermediate may have a better version than the Pro although it may not sound so polished.
Would it suit you if we just had the same rules as last time, but had those three categories: beginner, intermediate and advanced? ---------- 'If it sounds GOOD to you, it's bitchen; if it sounds BAD to YOU, it's shitty' - Frank Zappa
I'm also down for this. I'm still doing field work ovr here in Jordan, but I'd be down to do another one of these for sure... I'll be back home in a week, so I hope this doesn't go down TOO fast!
"Summertime" obviously makes sense as a summer song, but if it were me, I'd start with the basics. The first contest featured a slow blues. I'd have #2 be an up-the-middle shuffle. Maybe a stop-time in there, just to keep it fun. Not too long: maybe 2:30 or 3:00.
I'm ok with either of the propositions, Summertime or the middle shuffle, but I'd need an example of the latter, as I'm not sure to know what is an up-the-middle shuffle.
I would not make categories : sometimes, a beginner can do better than an advanced, depending on the inspiration and the tastes of the listener.
Do you lot wanna run it? As IA said, he's in the field; GH has got exams at the moment.
I don't mind if I do some stuff - I did put the ball in the court this time round after all - or share it with someone else.
Anyway, I've got no ego with regard to the matter. I know you're busy, so I'm just asking what you think. ---------- 'If it sounds GOOD to you, it's bitchen; if it sounds BAD to YOU, it's shitty' - Frank Zappa
Any consensus? Summertime or one of Adam's suggestions, e.g. an up-the-middle shuffle or a stop-time - forgive my ignorance Doc, I presume that's a medium tempo shuffle or what I know as a one-stop rhythm, e.g. Mannish Boy, Bad To The Bone, et al; different side of the pond, different terms, maybe. ---------- 'If it sounds GOOD to you, it's bitchen; if it sounds BAD to YOU, it's shitty' - Frank Zappa
http://www.youtube.com/user/SlimHarpMick
Last Edited by on Jul 03, 2009 12:19 PM
Don't much care which song we play as I will gladly acquiesce to the majority opinion. I finally got a web cam and this will give me a reason to hook the doggone thing up. Can't believe I've let it sit in the box so long gathering dust. I'm in.
I guess I missed the lesson on what a stop-time is, Adam--I got this from Wikidpedia:
"Stop-time From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search For other uses, see Stop-time (disambiguation).
In music, stop-time is, according to Samuel A. Floyd Jr., "a musical device in which the forward flow of the music stops, or seems to stop, suspended in a rhythmic unison, while in some cases an improvising instrumentalist or singer continues solo with the forward flow of the meter and tempo. Such stop-time moments are sometimes repeated, creating an illusion of starting and stopping, as, for example, in Scott Joplin’s 'The Ragtime Dance' and Jelly Roll Morton’s 'King Porter Stomp'."
Joplin's "Stoptime Rag" (1910) employs stop-time throughout; it even lacks his characteristic four-bar introduction. Stop-time in Joplin's rags is characterized by directions in the music for performers to stamp their foot to the beat.
Stop-time is common in African-American popular music including R&B, jazz, soul music, and led to the break of hip hop."
Here's a historical perspective--aparrently (to me) "stop-time" just refers to a rhythmic pause in a hunk of music--to put it in the vernacular:
Is this a correct assumption? Or maybe there is a more refined definition that would be more specific to the blues?
Some of the hills blues jam tracks have stop times so its not as weird as you guys are making it out to be... ---------- "Without music, life would be a mistake" -Nietzsche
I would still go for summertime, though. We had a backing track last time. This time without backing track. Next time with singing... As, i think jonsparrow said on the last thread: Let's mix it up a little.
Let go for acoustic without back track, this way anybody with an urge to participate can join.... no excuses like " I don't have an amp" etc.... ---------- DutchBones Tube
I'll go along with that: Summertime with no singing. I'll be playing it accoustically, but I'm not fussed if some people want to do it with a mic.
I'm going out now, so, if no one's summarised the rules in a new thread when I get back, I'll do it then or in the morning. ---------- 'If it sounds GOOD to you, it's bitchen; if it sounds BAD to YOU, it's shitty' - Frank Zappa
It's on YT. The rules thread is a little below this one. ---------- 'If it sounds GOOD to you, it's bitchen; if it sounds BAD to YOU, it's shitty' - Frank Zappa
