scstrickland
311 posts
Nov 19, 2009
3:53 AM
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I'm embarrassed to say, but Happy Birthday is mine. I would consider myself advanced beginner/intermediate but Happy Birthday still kicks my ass! Every time! I practice it until I can play it in my sleep, backwards, blind folded, hanging upside down with one hand tied behind my back. Its easy! Bring out the cake and DIZZASTER! I jack it up every time. I have blown it so many times that, every time I try I know I'm going to mess it up, and then I do. It's a self fulfilling prophecy!
Do you have an easy song or riff that gives you can do every time until the one time that you Have To and then you blow it?
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scrybe314
29 posts
Nov 19, 2009
5:31 AM
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There's a riff Doc Gussow uses on "Watermelon Man" that goes 10d-10d-9d-9b'-8d that I've practiced dozens of times. It's great, sounds nice, and brings my style of solos to a good solid close. I can hit that nine blow bend in my sleep...as long as I'm not on a stage. When there's a show on and I think "Okay, I'm cruising, I can nail this, let's do it..." wouldn't you know I attack way too hard and jam the blow reed. That and any time I try to stick "The Flinstones Theme" in something a la Jason Ricci on "The Blow Zone Layer." Done it perfectly a dozen times, just none of them on stage.
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XHarp
215 posts
Nov 19, 2009
6:49 AM
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On going nemesis,
Hitting the notes already bent. I can bend into them but hitting them true already bent is my nemesis.
Present nemesis,
Finding the perfect riffs and fills to go with our version of walking blues.
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"Keep it in your mouth" - XHarp
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ricanefan
32 posts
Nov 19, 2009
8:57 AM
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"Rudolph" and "Frosty" - if anyone sings along. I can play anything else with someone singing along. I can play these through my nose when I'm alone...but when someone sings along, my playing comes to an ugly, crashing halt.
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nacoran
431 posts
Nov 19, 2009
9:19 AM
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I can hit bends already bent, but not blow bends and I still can't hit a single overblow, but my real arch nemesis is tempo. I once shook a maraca so far off tempo it decided to explode rather than go on that way. My friends tried to console me, tell me I just shook it too hard, but I know the truth.
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Miles Dewar
416 posts
Nov 19, 2009
9:28 AM
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People asking if I like Bob Dylan.................no
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---Go Chicago Bears!!!---
Last Edited by on Nov 19, 2009 9:29 AM
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congaron
275 posts
Nov 19, 2009
2:32 PM
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Giving in to the sound guy when he asks me to turn my 5 watt amp down during sound check. Then he turns my amp mic up at showtime and causes feedback from all the guitars and drums and everything on stage getting into my amp mic....because he puts the harp in the monitor instead of letting me use my amp where i had it and just controlling the FOH level. I am a sound guy...I know this is a control issue, and I am going to stop giving in when one asks me to do this. Two sound guys that never said a word about it gave us the best sound we've had, simply letting all of us play through our amps and running the FOH vocals, harp, guitars, bass and drums accordingly...it can be done.
Old school sound guys know how....I will begin training these guys....I promise.
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HarpNinja
33 posts
Nov 21, 2009
1:57 PM
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Gus...and Blues Nazis.
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Mike Fugazzi
http://www.myspace.com/niterailband
http://www.youtube.com/user/NiteRail
http://www.twitter.com/NiteRail
http://www.facebook.com/mike.fugazzi
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Greg Heumann
170 posts
Nov 21, 2009
8:41 PM
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I can play my ass off in 1st 2nd and 3rd. I don't always play every phrase the way I intended but I'm comfortable enough that I just go where the harp leads me and it works. (Unless a reed sticks...)
My problem is remembering lyrics!!!! I lead my band so i sing every vocal number. I keep a book in front of me on a music stand, which I wish I could do without, but even with it there, I still go up on lyrics once every couple of gigs. Makes me crazy. Songs I've sung MANY times. Can't remember how they start, or what key they're in, or what the friggin' words are. AAAAAaaaaaaahhhhhhh! mumble mumble mumble.
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/Greg
http://www.BlowsMeAway.com
http://www.BlueStateBand.net
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LittleJoeSamson
132 posts
Nov 21, 2009
9:09 PM
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GREG, You've got the secret!
( mumble, mumble, mumble )
"My woman done mmgrmble drbmgle,
She done sawgaffelleggtlljrzt,
Ah well I got sumuf doz yezz did a lil sofa BLUES!"
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nacoran
446 posts
Nov 21, 2009
9:38 PM
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Greg, that's actually one of the reasons I dodge vocal duties. I wish I could afford a teleprompter. I guess some pros get the lyrics fed to them through there headpiece. That's easy if you are doing it at the exact pace each time (singing along with a prerecorded track like a boyband). I bet if some computer programmer set their mind to it they could write something that counted beats and fed you the lyrics at the right time. Of course, you could just write more memorable lyrics!!! (uh oh, why can't I remember my lyrics?)
It's boring, but I think the best way is just to sit there reciting them over and over until you've got them. I have one song that I actually do sing lead on that I always screw up the verses on.
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LittleJoeSamson
133 posts
Nov 21, 2009
11:10 PM
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Oh...when a reed sticks, repeat the riff.
Everyone ( including the other cats ) will think it intended, and conclude you are a post-jazz genius.
[ Works for me!]
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nacoran
448 posts
Nov 22, 2009
2:56 PM
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Scstrickland, ok, counts the beat and adjusts the music to you, as opposed to karaoke where the machine sets the beat. It's been one of those days. I just set a glass of soda on a surface that I thought was flat enough to hold it. It tipped over and fell into my shoe, which I was about to put on. And if that wasn't bad enough, now my mouth tastes like foot. I guess I should have just written off the soda.
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scstrickland
313 posts
Nov 23, 2009
3:34 AM
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If you're having trouble remembering lyrics, Try visualization techniques. In other words: If you have trouble with the first lines of Dock of the Bay. "sitting in the morning sun" imagine a sunrise, make it interesting very colorful with birds and clouds silhouetted on the sky. Associate that mental picture with the words when you practice the song, just before the vocals come in think of that picture. with practice it will happen every time. The image doesn't have to be associated with the words but it helps.
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Andrew
762 posts
Nov 23, 2009
4:02 AM
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Greg: I too can't remember a word of any song.
Nacoran: I used to have trouble with exploding maracas too.
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Kinda hot in these rhinos!
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toddlgreene
177 posts
Nov 23, 2009
5:36 AM
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Greg, Andrew and anyone else-same here. Lyrics don't always stick well in the cobwebs of my brain. I front an all-original band, and I don't write the lyrics, and our two writers cringe and give me hell when I mess them up. My problem is I've always made it a priority to anunciate quite well, as I believe the listener should understand the words I'm singing without a lyric sheet. When a lyrical brainfart takes over my memory, sometimes I mumble which draws IMMEDIATE glares from both sides of me, but I've tried to just say whatever when I draw a blank instead. My remedy is cheat-sheets taped on the floor next to the set list, on my percussion stand, etc. Hell, if the Prez can use a teleprompter, so can I!
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~Todd L. Greene, Devout Pedestrian
"listen to what you like for inspiration, but find your own voice"
crescentcityharmonicaclub@gmail.com
Last Edited by on Nov 23, 2009 6:43 AM
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southbound_60
2 posts
Nov 23, 2009
8:57 AM
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Charlie Musselwhites " I can't get away from you"! switches from a g to a c with so much overblowing,it makes me crazy!!
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sgsax
13 posts
Nov 23, 2009
10:55 AM
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Todd,
Next time the other guys give you a hard time about getting the lyrics right, tell them they can effing sing them next time. If the don't like how you do it, tough sh*t. As a band fronter myself, I can agree that it's not easy to keep lyrics to some 40+ songs in my head and spit them out in the right order. Even songs I've written myself don't always come easily.
Seth
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toddlgreene
183 posts
Nov 23, 2009
11:08 AM
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@sgsax-I left out the part that I always win those arguements...;-) One time in my early days with the band, the keyboard player got a bit irate at a show when I improvved a word on one of his tunes because it fit better with my phrasing(and it still made perfect sense witht the rest of the lyrics), and I picked up my mic stand and put it front of his keyboard and gave him a cheery 'Have at it, motherfucker!'...That was the last time I got such objections from him.
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~Todd L. Greene, Devout Pedestrian
"listen to what you like for inspiration, but find your own voice"
crescentcityharmonicaclub@gmail.com
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sgsax
16 posts
Nov 23, 2009
11:22 AM
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Hahahaha! Awesome!
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jaymcc28
188 posts
Nov 24, 2009
8:08 AM
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Mine? Illinois Nazi's. I HATE Illinois Nazi's.
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"You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it. You Cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom."
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